Momoyama

Discover the Purple Ground Haori with Aoi Mon, an Important Cultural Property featuring the rare tsujigahana dyeing technique worn by Tokugawa Ieyasu. Explore this exceptional textile masterpiece preserved at the Tokugawa Art Museum in Nagoya.

Explore the four magnificent watchtowers (I, Ro, Ha, Ni) of Himeji Castle, Japan's UNESCO World Heritage site. Learn about their 400-year history, unique defensive features, and architectural brilliance that survived wars and earthquakes.

The Kuroito Odoshi Domaru Gusoku (Black-Laced Domaru Armor) is an Important Cultural Property of Japan, worn by Honda Tadakatsu (1548–1610), one of the Tokugawa Four Heavenly Kings. Featuring towering deer antler helmet crests, a fierce lion-biting front piece, and gold-leafed Buddhist rosary beads, this iconic armor embodies the spirit of a legendary warrior who fought in 57 battles without receiving a single wound. Currently deposited at the Mikawa Bushi no Yakata Ieyasukan in Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture.

Pale green ash glaze runs down the shoulder while the foot scorches black. The Momoyama Iga flower vase Fuyo holds warped, deliberate beauty in 28 centimeters.

Discover the National Treasure imperial letter (shinkan) written by Emperor Go-Yōzei to Shōren-in Temple in Kyoto. Learn about its historical significance, exquisite calligraphy, and the dramatic events of 1596 Japan.

A National Important Cultural Property at Wakamatsu-dera, Tendo: a sacred-horse votive panel painted in 1563 by samurai-artist Gonome Sadashige for his late wife.

Discover the Kasho Ship Flag and Noshima Murakami Family Documents, an Important Cultural Property revealing the maritime world of Japan's legendary Seto Inland Sea pirates. Learn about the Murakami Kaizoku's naval pass system and historic correspondence with feudal lords.

An Important Cultural Property at Jōei-ji, Yamaguchi: a rare gold-rich portrait of the Zen abbot Ishō Enyū, painted about 1611 to 1614 by ink master Unkoku Tōgan.

An Important Cultural Property in Yamanashi, this iron sword guard by Hayashi Matashichi pierces cherry blossoms and nine-luminary crests, the two Hosokawa emblems.

Discover the 953-item Important Cultural Property collection documenting the achievements of Kunitomo Ikkansai (1778–1840), the 'Edison of the Edo Period.' From Japan's first reflecting telescope and sunspot observation records to the country's first practical air gun, explore the extraordinary scientific legacy born in a small gunsmith village in Shiga Prefecture.

A wakizashi dated 1586 by Horikawa Kunihiro, the smith later called the founder of Japan's new sword era. An early work, now an Important Cultural Property in Osaka.

In an Osaka museum, this pair of Momoyama folding screens paints Europeans arriving by ship and Christian worship on gold leaf. It opens only in May and November.

A Momoyama short sword sheathed in patterned gold, over an earlier Nobukuni blade. Its lion fittings are attributed to the Goto family, with Hosokawa provenance.

Hasegawa Tohaku's Crows and Egrets, a pair of six-panel ink screens from around 1605, sets black crows against white egrets in monochrome. Where to see it today.

Discover Inuyama Castle, one of only five National Treasure castle keeps in Japan. Built in 1537, this original wooden tower offers panoramic views of the Kiso River and Nobi Plain, a charming Edo-period castle town, and centuries of samurai history in Aichi Prefecture.

Built in 1606, the main hall of Tobe Shrine is the only shrine building in Nagoya designated a national Important Cultural Property, rich in Momoyama-era carving.

Two Important Cultural Property gates at Nagoya Castle, built around 1612 in the defensive korai-mon style. Both survived the 1945 air raids that razed the keep.

Discover Ryusenji Niomon, a 1607 Important Cultural Property gate at one of Nagoya's Owari Four Kannon temples. Built in three-bay rōmon style with a kokera-shingled hip-and-gable roof, it has welcomed pilgrims for over four centuries on a hilltop overlooking the Shōnai River.

Discover the Main Hall of Daiho Hachimangu Shrine in Shimotsuma, Ibaraki—a nationally designated Important Cultural Property built in 1577. Explore its 1,300-year history, Momoyama-era architecture, and seasonal festivals.

The Main Hall of Hachimangu Shrine in Mito City, Ibaraki Prefecture (popularly Mito Hachimangu) is a National Important Cultural Property built in 1598 by the warlord Satake Yoshinobu. Designed in a Wayō–Karayō hybrid style with an irimoya roof, it was constructed by a team of young craftsmen led by the fifteen-year-old master carpenter Yoshihara Sakutarō. Restored to its original colors and gilding between 1995 and 1999, it preserves the brilliance of late Azuchi-Momoyama architecture in a region where few medieval structures survive.