Muromachi

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.

Seeking Blossoms (Tankazu) by the early Ming court painter Shi Rui is a fifteenth-century Chinese masterpiece preserved in Japan as an Important Cultural Property. The hanging scroll depicts literati seeking out early-spring blossoms in a mountainous landscape, rendered in the brilliant blue-and-green style with lavish use of mineral pigments and gold. Surviving works by Shi Rui are exceptionally rare, making this painting one of the finest examples of Chinese imperial court painting preserved in Japan. It is occasionally displayed in special exhibitions at the Tokyo National Museum.

Discover the Pigeon on a Peach Branch (Momohato-zu), a Japanese National Treasure attributed to Emperor Huizong of the Northern Song Dynasty. This exquisite silk painting from 1107 showcases the boneless (mokkotsu) technique, Slender Gold calligraphy, and a provenance tracing back to Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu.

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.

This fifteenth-century pair of six-panel screens at the Tokyo National Museum is the oldest surviving Hamamatsu-zu, its mica ground glowing softly like moonlight.

A Muromachi ink painting of the poet Li Bai watching a waterfall, inscribed by the Zen monk Ishō Tokugan around the early 1420s, the oldest such work in Japan.

A pair of Muromachi scrolls of reeds and geese in ink and light colour, attributed to Shugetsu, privately owned in Tokyo and an Important Cultural Property since 1934.

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.

101 objects, 19 Noh masks, 80 costumes, and 2 instruments, handed down in a Hyuga merchant family and now a Registered Art Object at the Kyushu National Museum.

The 1466 main hall of Asuke Hachiman Shrine near Korankei in Toyota, Aichi: a cypress-bark-roofed nagare-style hall preserving mid-Muromachi architecture.

The 1536 tahoto pagoda of Arako Kannon temple in Nagoya, the oldest building in the city, with a Zen-style upper storey over a Japanese-style lower storey.

The 1527 main hall of Kumaku Shrine on Mount Yatsuomote in Nishio, Aichi: a rare hip-and-gable shrine hall with a three-bay porch and cypress-bark roof.

The mid-Muromachi main hall of Kodenji in Kitanagoya, Aichi, a square hip-and-gable hall with a cypress-bark roof once called the most beautiful building in Owari.

Zaigaji Temple in Toyokawa, Aichi keeps two Muromachi structures: a gate planned as two storeys but roofed as one, and a Zen-style zushi cabinet dated 1483.

At Sanmyo-ji in Toyokawa City rises a 14.5-meter pagoda rebuilt in 1531. Its lower stories follow the Japanese style; the third turns to the Zen style, a rare mix.

Inside Sanmyo-ji's main hall in Toyokawa City stands a wooden tabernacle for the Benzaiten image. Built in 1554, it takes the form of a Shinto shrine sanctuary.

A two-storied tahoto at Shokaiji in Inazawa, Aichi, from the mid-Muromachi period. Its bracketing blends two imported styles; the grounds are famed for hydrangeas.

The main hall of Jokoji in Seto, Aichi, known as Muiden. A Zen-style hall of 1493 with a skirting pent roof, it stands below the first Owari lord's mausoleum.

The Kannon hall of Shinkomyoji in Okazaki, Aichi, built in 1478. A Zen-style hall at a Pure Land temple founded by the Matsudaira, ancestors of Tokugawa Ieyasu.