Kamakura

The tachi signed Masatsune at Kumano Hayatama Taisha is a Ko-Bizen work, an Important Cultural Property separate from the shrine's National Treasures.

The tachi signed Mitsutada at Kishu Toshogu is by the founder of the Osafune school, bearing a paulownia crest rather than the Tokugawa hollyhock, of Kamakura date.

The tachi signed Moriie at Kishu Toshogu, a finest work of this Bizen smith, descended through the Kii Tokugawa and is an Important Cultural Property.

An Important Cultural Property at Kishū Tōshōgū: a slender 72-centimeter tachi by the late-Kamakura Kyoto master Rai Kunitoshi, with a calm straight temper line.

A Kamakura short sword signed Kunimitsu, held by Kongobu-ji on Koyasan and designated in 1913. By tradition its maker is Shintogo Kunimitsu, founder of Soshu work.

A Kamakura short sword signed Rai Kunimitsu at Hirohachiman Shrine in Hirogawa, town of the rice-sheaf tsunami legend. A Kyoto Rai-school work designated in 1950.

An iron kettle at Kumano Hongu Taisha cast with the date 1198, used in the yudate rite. It is among Japan's oldest dated kettles, from the early Kamakura era.

A bronze five-pronged vajra bell at Shochi-in on Koyasan, made in Tang China and designated in 1928. An esoteric Buddhist implement, paired with a vajra in ritual.

A Kamakura bronze bell owned by Kongobuji on Mount Koya, with a cast inscription dating it to 1280. A securely dated example shown by rotation at the Reihokan.

A 1210 bronze bell at Kongo Sanmaiin, Mount Koya, ringed with deity names and nine Sanskrit mantras. A rare Important Cultural Property, unrung in its gate-tower.

A burial assemblage placing a lay devotee's bones near Kūkai's mausoleum at Okunoin in 1287, with a gilt-bronze pagoda and a cast bronze triad found in the earth.

A Kamakura manuscript with part of volume three of the Tang poet Bai Juyi's collected works, held at Sanbō-in on Mount Kōya, a witness to its transmission in Japan.

A Kamakura worship dais from the Fudō-dō on Mount Kōya, the low seat where a priest knelt to officiate, part of one original set with the flower-form altar.

A Kamakura ritual altar made for the Fudō-dō, oldest hall on Mount Kōya. Built in two parts on a square base, it once held the implements of esoteric Shingon rites.

Dated to 1312, the Hanagata Daidan is a Kamakura-period esoteric altar at Kongōbu-ji on Mount Kōya, its lotus-petal form a stage for the implements of a rite.

Two Kamakura tachi with chain straps, by tradition offered during the Mongol invasions. Held by the shrine of Kōyasan's guardians, now at the Tokyo National Museum.

A sandalwood shrine only 23 cm tall, carved in Tang China with twenty-five tiny deities and tied by tradition to the monk Kukai. A National Treasure on Mount Koya.

A Womb World Dainichi in meditation pose, this early Kamakura figure carries the taut, youthful manner of the Kei school, now kept by the Pure Land temple Jōkyō-ji.

A Kamakura-period Dainichi Nyorai in the main hall of Sainan-in, a Mount Kōya sub-temple guarding the southwestern gate and famed for its Shigemori rock garden.

A Kamakura-period wooden Tamonten at Henjoko-in on Mount Koya, an armored guardian of the north holding a pagoda and halberd above a subdued demon underfoot.