Muromachi

The Jizodo of Sanbutsuji on Mt. Mitoku, Tottori, a late Muromachi hall on stilts along the trail to Nageiredo, matches the nearby Monjudo in size and style.

The Amida Hall of Daisenji on Mount Daisen, Tottori, rebuilt in 1552 after a landslide, is the oldest hall of the temple, a grand frame housing a 12th-century Amida.

A nationally designated Important Cultural Property in Kurayoshi, Tottori, the zushi (miniature shrine) inside Hasedera's main hall is one of the few late-Muromachi Zen-style wooden structures still standing in San'in, bearing a 1576 inscription and retaining its original kokera-shingled roof.

The Iwayado of Fudoin in Wakasa, Tottori, is a raised kakezukuri hall of the early Muromachi period (1333 to 1392), three bays square under a board roof.

Unjuji Shikyakumon in Yasugi, Shimane, is an early Muromachi four-legged gate designated in 1904. It outlasted the 1820 fire that took most of the temple's halls.

The Main Hall of Kiyomizudera in Yasugi, Shimane, built in 1393, is the only building on Mount Zuiko to survive sixteenth-century warfare. Entry is free.

Built in 1374, the Main Hall of Manpuku-ji in Masuda, Shimane is a National Important Cultural Property. The seven-by-seven-bay hip-roofed hall preserves Kamakura-period architectural traditions, and behind it lies one of Sesshu Toyo's celebrated four great gardens, together evoking the cultural flowering of the medieval Masuda clan.

A late Muromachi Amida hall at Shiofune Kannonji in Ome, Tokyo, designated in 1946: a small sanctuary ringed by an aisle, never finished, copper-roofed since 1961.

A late Muromachi eight-legged gate at Shiofune Kannonji in Ome, Tokyo, designated in 1946: gabled thatch, a Daihisan board and guardian kings once credited to Unkei.

A late Muromachi hall at Shiofune Kannonji in Ome, Tokyo, designated in 1946: a thatched esoteric hall and shrine cabinet with a hidden Kannon shown 4 times a year.

Kongō-ji Niō-mon Gate in Hino City, Tokyo, is the main gate of Takahata Fudōson, one of the Three Great Fudō of the Kantō region. Built in the late Muromachi period as a three-bay, single-entrance two-story gate (sangen ikko rōmon), it was returned to its original two-story irimoya form during the 1959–1960 dismantling and restoration. Designated a National Important Cultural Property in 1946, the gate houses a fierce pair of Muromachi-period Niō guardian statues. Just 35 minutes from Shinjuku by Keiō Line and a 5-minute walk from the station, it offers a rare encounter with medieval temple architecture amid the seasonal beauty of hydrangeas and autumn maples.

Kongoji Fudodo in Hino City, Tokyo is an early Muromachi-period temple hall rebuilt in 1342 and widely regarded as the oldest existing cultural-property building within Tokyo Metropolis. Designated a Nationally Important Cultural Property, the hall — five bays square with a hip-and-gable roof, a one-bay front canopy, and copper sheeting in thatched-roof profile — stands at the heart of Takahata Fudoson, one of the Kantō region's three great Fudō temples and the ancestral temple of Shinsengumi vice-commander Hijikata Toshizō.

Court robes, maki-e boxes, mirrors, 29 combs, and silver toiletries offered to the Kumano gods around 1390 survive nearly complete at the Kyoto National Museum.

At the Kyoto National Museum, this gold-on-indigo scroll is the sole survivor of a handwritten Goryeo Buddhist canon vowed in 1006 by a Korean queen dowager.

A National Treasure album at the Kyoto National Museum, holding 240-plus calligraphy fragments from the 8th to 16th centuries, once used to authenticate old writing.

A Southern Song celadon vase of shimokabura form, a Japanese National Treasure with a smooth, crackle-free pale-blue glaze. Its kiln is still debated by scholars.

A National Treasure near Tokyo: a Southern Song printing of the Hanshu in 61 fascicles, holding the earliest reliable Chinese record of Japan, the Wa people.

A complete Southern Song printing of the Book of the Later Han, kept in Sakura, whose account of the eastern peoples names Queen Himiko and an embassy of 57 CE.

A National Treasure near Tokyo: the Song-dynasty Shiji printed by Huang Shanfu, the oldest complete copy of the three-commentary edition, all 130 chapters intact.

Brushed in 1124, this is the oldest surviving Zen calligraphy. Cut in two long ago, its front half is National Treasure number one, the supreme tearoom scroll.