Muromachi

A Southern Song painting on one scroll at Kuonji in Yamanashi, recorded as having once formed a single set with two other scrolls held elsewhere today.

A middle Muromachi-period shrine hall in Shiga Prefecture. Its own name and its address here use two quite different characters for the one same sound.

An early Muromachi hall in Shiga Prefecture, rebuilt in 1347. A temple building, it is filed here under the shrines rather than under any temples at all.

An early Muromachi-period Buddhist main hall in Shiga Prefecture. The Agency's own commentary field for the hall there has been left entirely empty now.

A mid-Muromachi hall at Shozokuin within Engakuji in Kamakura, held the oldest and purest Zen-style hall in Japan. Kanagawa's only National Treasure building.

An early Muromachi-period hall in Osaka Prefecture. Its commentary misspells a founder's name there, and it lists out the nine rounds of repair since.

Discover Jinkakuji Hondo, a remarkable Important Cultural Property built in 1369, nestled atop Mount Jinkakuji in Oita Prefecture. Experience ancient Muromachi architecture, Kamakura-era guardian statues, and stunning rhododendron blooms at this serene mountain temple—one of Bungo's Three Great Temples.

A middle Muromachi-period hall in Tokyo. One single ink inscription found there fixed its own date, the temple's own name and its own image all at once.

A Southern Song tea bowl in Tokyo, known as the Inaba Tenmoku. Another bowl of the very same name here was listed on exactly the same day as this one.

An ink painting on deposit at the Tokyo National Museum, owned by a foundation. Its title names Shide alone, and not the usual pair of the two figures.

Discover the National Treasure 'Portrait of a Court Lady' (Kyūjo-zu), a Yuan Dynasty masterpiece depicting a woman in male court attire with a flute at her sash. Explore its storied provenance from the Ashikaga Shogunal collection to the legendary collector Ohara Magosaburō, its connection to the ancient flute virtuoso Huan Yi, and how to view this enigmatic painting at the Kyoto National Museum and the 2026 special exhibition at the Ohara Museum of Art in Kurashiki.

Discover the National Treasure "Landscape in Ink and Light Color on Paper" by Sesshū Tōyō, one of Japan's greatest ink painters. This masterpiece from the Muromachi period is believed to be his final work, held in the Ōhara family collection in Kurashiki, Okayama.

Discover the Persian Manuscript in Japan, a remarkable 13th-century document brought from Song-dynasty Quanzhou by the monk Keisei. This Important Cultural Property contains Persian poetry and reveals the vibrant maritime Silk Road connections between medieval Japan, China, and Persia.

Housed at the Kyoto National Museum, the Hanada-ito Odoshi Dōmaru is an Important Cultural Property of Muromachi-era armor laced with pale indigo cords and complete with its helmet and large shoulder guards. Its akoda-shaped helmet, intricate shakudō chrysanthemum fittings, and connection to the Nasu family — famed for the legendary archer Nasu no Yoichi — make it a rare window into medieval Japanese martial and craft heritage.

An Important Cultural Property of Japan held privately in Kyoto Prefecture. This hanging scroll is a Zen ink-trace (bokuseki) brushed in 1268 by the Southern Song Chan master Wu'er Kexuan (also known as Shiqiao Kexuan), giving a verse-poem to his disciple Ming, who served as the temple's head of guests. As a precisely dated late-Southern-Song original, it is a primary document of Sino-Japanese Zen exchange and an exemplar of the calligraphy that came to be revered as the highest form of hanging scroll in the Japanese tea ceremony.

This Important Cultural Property is an ink calligraphy (bokuseki) by Lingshi Ruzhi, a Yuan-dynasty Chan monk and direct disciple of the celebrated master Xutang Zhiyu. Written in 1330 as a gatha for the monk Zhèngtáng, this work connects the spiritual lineage of Rinzai Zen with Japan's tea ceremony culture and is privately held in Kyoto Prefecture.

A Muromachi-era Noh hunting robe in Kurokawa, Yamagata. Ming figured silk, tailored in Japan, bears a gold-leaf heavenly palace, sun, moon, stars and cranes.

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.

A Southern Song-period silk painting of a quail bearing the "Zakkashitsu-in" connoisseurship seal of Shogun Ashikaga Yoshinori, this Important Cultural Property descends from the celebrated Higashiyama lineage of Chinese paintings cherished by the Ashikaga shogunal house, and is privately preserved in Tokyo as a quiet witness to Japan's medieval engagement with classical Chinese art.

A hanging scroll in ink and color on silk, named an Important Cultural Property in 1959. Lan Ying, who painted it, was a leading landscape master of the late Ming.