Kamakura

An Important Cultural Property tachi signed by Nagamitsu, a late-Kamakura Osafune master of Bizen, kept at original length with its choji temper and Bizen utsuri.

A privately held Kamakura tachi by the Bizen master Nagamitsu, an Important Cultural Property prized for its choji temper, misty utsuri, and original signed tang.

A Kamakura tachi by Nagamitsu of Bizen's Osafune school. Its brilliant clove-pattern temper and misty utsuri mark this privately held Important Cultural Property.

A Kamakura tachi signed Hisakuni, an Awataguchi smith of Go-Toba's goban kaji. An Important Cultural Property of unknown whereabouts, on Japan's missing register.

A signed late-Kamakura tachi by Osafune Kagemitsu of Bizen, with a formal cord-wrapped mounting, held at the Tokyo National Museum and designated in 1950.

A tachi forged in 1334 by the Bizen master Kagemitsu, now an Important Cultural Property of unknown whereabouts. We trace its story and where to see his work.

A signed tachi forged in 1300 by Nagamitsu of Osafune, a leading Kamakura swordsmith. This Important Cultural Property is now an object of unknown whereabouts.

An Important Cultural Property tachi in Tokyo, signed Masatsune, a name used by several early Bizen smiths. This privately held blade dates to the Kamakura period.

A Kamakura tachi by Moritsugu, an early Aoe-school smith of Bitchu. Its steel shows the school's signature sumihada, and a gold inlay ties it to Hakone Shrine.

A mid-Kamakura tachi by Yoshihira of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school in a private collection, a National Treasure since 1963, once missing and since found.

A Kamakura tachi by Yoshifusa of the Ichimonji school in a private collection, a National Treasure since 1953, kept at full length and granted to the Shimazu by the shogun in 1667.

A Kamakura tachi by Rai Kunitoshi in a private collection, a National Treasure since 1952, a rare and elegant example of his irregular temper line.

A Kamakura tanto by Shintogo Kunimitsu located in Tokyo, a National Treasure since 1953, sound and showing his characteristics well.

A Kamakura tanto by Rai Kunitsugu in a private collection, a National Treasure since 1955, his largest dagger and influenced by the Soshu style.

Held in a private Tokyo collection, the Nanbu Family Documents are an Important Cultural Property of Japan comprising 243 unmounted medieval letters and orders preserved by the Hachinohe (later Tōno) Nanbu clan. Spanning the Kamakura through early Edo periods, the archive includes original directives from Southern Court generals Kitabatake Akiie and Akinobu, alongside the Soga Documents — making it a vital window into the wars and politics of medieval northern Japan.

Calligraphy by the Southern Song Chan master Xutang Zhiyu on wax-coated paper, an Important Cultural Property prized as a tea-room scroll, privately held in Tokyo.

A broad, sturdy short sword by Kyoto smith Rai Kunimitsu, this Important Cultural Property belonged to Aizu lord Hoshina Masayuki and later to the Tokugawa shoguns.

The Albino sheet of the Yamai no Soshi, a 12th-century Buddhist handscroll, was cut from its parent scroll in 1796 and named an Important Cultural Property in 1938.

At Tokyo's Artizon Museum, this Tokiwa scroll of the Heiji Monogatari Emaki paints the 1159 war apart from its famous kin, from Tokiwa's flight to a court purge.

Volume eight of the nine-scroll Shui Kotokuden, a Kamakura life of Honen, founder of Japan's Pure Land school, drafted in 1301 by Shinran's great-grandson Kakunyo.