Kamakura

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.

An Important Cultural Property in Nara, this Kamakura-period mandala on silk anchored the secret Ichiji Kinrin rite. Privately held, it is not on public display.

An Important Cultural Property tachi forged in 1319 by Kyoto's Rai Kunitoshi, its slender form and quiet straight temper marking the smith's late style.

An Important Cultural Property held privately in Nara Prefecture, the four-scroll Shihon Chakushoku Ippen Shōnin Emaki depicts the life of Ippen Shōnin (1239–1289), founder of the Ji-shū sect. As a transcribed copy of the Sōshun-bon tradition, it preserves the spirit of Kamakura-period yamato-e painting and Japan's medieval Pure Land devotion.

A Kamakura tanto by Awataguchi Yoshimitsu at the Kyushu Historical Museum, Fukuoka, a National Treasure since 1953, broad and short with a fine edge.

The Iino Family Documents, 1,683 papers from the priests of Iino Hachimangu in Iwaki, Fukushima, begin in 1204; 210 medieval pieces record estate rule.

At Nyoho-ji in Koriyama, Fukushima, this stone slab stupa of 1276 is the best-preserved itabi memorial in Tohoku, an Amida-centered Important Cultural Property.

This unsigned katana is an Important Cultural Property attributed to the Ichimonji school of Kamakura-period Bizen, famed for its bold clove-shaped temper line.

This Tang dynasty manuscript (7th–8th century) is the oldest surviving copy of Volume 6 of the Shishuo Xinshu (Shishuo Xinyu), a celebrated Chinese anecdote collection. Designated as a National Treasure, this fragment features elegant Tang calligraphy, Heian-period reading marks, and esoteric Buddhist texts on the verso — a testament to over a millennium of Sino-Japanese cultural exchange.

Discover the National Treasure Amida Triad on Silk at Renge Sanmai-in, Mount Kōya, Wakayama. This Kamakura-period Buddhist masterpiece features a unique iconography with Amida Buddha forming the teaching mudrā. Learn about its artistic significance, the legend of monk Myōhen, and how to visit Kōyasan Reihōkan museum.

Discover the naginata signed by Rai Kunitoshi, an Important Cultural Property preserved on Mount Koya in Wakayama Prefecture. Forged by one of the late Kamakura period's most celebrated swordsmiths of the Yamashiro Rai school, this rare polearm showcases the refined steel and elegant tempering of the Rai tradition, and offers a window into Japan's medieval warrior craftsmanship and the UNESCO World Heritage of Koyasan.

Inside Kanpuku-ji's main hall in Tokai City stands a miniature wooden shrine, dated by inscription to the year 1248 and keeping clear Kamakura-period traits.

In Ama City west of Nagoya stands the two-storied South Gate of Jimokuji, the city's oldest wooden building, designated in 1900, with guardian statues below.

Myogenji Yanagido in Okazaki, Aichi, is a cypress-bark hall of early Shin Buddhism, designated in 1903. Its lattice shutters and disputed 1314 date repay attention.

A Tang manuscript of a poetry collection in the Osu library of Hoshoin, Nagoya, a National Treasure.

Held at Sanage Shrine, the third-ranked shrine of Mikawa Province in Toyota City, Aichi, this Kamakura-period black-lacquered tachi with unsigned blade was designated an Important Cultural Property in 1952. Discover the story of this sword, preserved for over seven centuries at the foot of sacred Mount Sanage, and explore the historic shrine that guards it.