Kamakura

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 National Treasure tachi forged by master swordsmith Yoshihira of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school during the mid-Kamakura period. Passed down through the Kishū Tokugawa family, it features a magnificent chōji-midare tempering pattern and a rare chrysanthemum crest engraving. With a blade length of 73.8 cm and curvature of 2.9 cm, it exemplifies the pinnacle of Japanese sword artistry.

Discover the National Treasure tachi signed by Yoshifusa, a masterwork of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school forged in the Kamakura period. Learn about its Shimazu clan provenance, stunning jūka-chōji hamon, and where to appreciate Yoshifusa's swords in Japan.

Discover the National Treasure tachi by Rai Kunitsoshi, a rare midare-ba masterpiece from the late Kamakura period. Learn about its exquisite craftsmanship, the Rai school legacy, and how to appreciate Japanese swords in Tokyo.

Explore the Important Cultural Property tantō signed by Shintōgo Kunimitsu, founder of the Sōshū school and teacher of Masamune. Learn about this 13th-century Kamakura-period blade at Tokyo National Museum.

Discover the National Treasure tantō by Rai Kunitsugu, a Kamakura-period master swordsmith counted among Masamune's famed Juttetsu. Learn about its Kishū Tokugawa provenance and how to see this rare blade in Japan.

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.

This Kamakura-period handscroll, an Important Cultural Property in a private Tokyo collection, illustrates the diary of Murasaki Shikibu, author of Genji.

Discover the Celadon Ewer with Peony Design at Tokyo National Museum — a 15th-century Longquan ware masterpiece from Ming-dynasty China, beloved in Japan as classic Tenryu-ji celadon and designated an Important Art Object.

The Awaji no Kuni Ōtabumi is an original land register of Awaji Province created in April 1223, shortly after the Jōkyū War. Compiled under the direction of shugo Naganuma Munemasa on orders from regent Hōjō Yasutoki, it records the estates, public lands, and military stewards of the province's two districts. As one of the rarest surviving original ōtabumi from the Kamakura period, it is designated as an Important Cultural Property of Japan.

At Hannya-ji in Nara stand two granite kasa-tōba, stone memorial pillars raised in 1261 by I no Yukiyoshi for his late father and his still-living mother.

An Important Cultural Property in Nara: a bronze Buddhist chime cast in 1208 with paired peacocks, linked by hand to a National Treasure kei made the next year.