Nara

Discover the mystical beauty of Yohen Tenmoku tea bowl (Inaba Tenmoku) at Seikado Bunko Art Museum in Marunouchi, Tokyo. Experience this 12th century National Treasure with its celestial blue iridescence and explore the sophisticated culture of Japanese tea ceremony.

Discover the Shosoin Repository, a National Treasure and UNESCO World Heritage Site in Nara, Japan. This ancient 8th-century storehouse has preserved 9,000 Silk Road artifacts for over 1,300 years. Learn about its unique azekura architecture, visiting tips, and the annual Shosoin Exhibition.

Discover Toshodaiji Temple Kyozo, Japan's oldest surviving azekura log-cabin storehouse, predating the temple itself. This National Treasure from the 8th century was originally a rice granary in Prince Niitabe's residence before Ganjin established the temple. Explore its unique history and architectural significance in Nara.

Discover the Tagajo Monument, one of Japan's three oldest stone inscriptions and newest National Treasure. This 8th-century frontier marker near Sendai offers free access to authentic ancient history, seasonal beauty, and the exact spot where haiku master Matsuo Basho wept.

Explore the Gilt-Bronze Epitaph of Ono no Emishi, a National Treasure dating to 677 CE. Learn about its connection to the famous diplomat Ono no Imoko, its dramatic discovery at Sudō Shrine in Kyoto, and how to visit this hidden gem of Japanese archaeology.

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.

Held privately in Kyoto, this Important Cultural Property is a stone Buddhist relief dated to Kaiyuan 12 (724 CE). One of the famed Baoqing Temple group that once adorned Empress Wu Zetian's Seven-Treasure Platform in Tang Chang'an, it represents the High Tang synthesis of Indian Gupta and Chinese sculptural traditions.

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.

Preserved at the Kyoto National Museum, this manuscript carries the Benmeiron, or 'Discourse on Discriminating Fate,' from volume fifty-four of the Wen Xuan—the oldest surviving anthology of Chinese literature, compiled by Crown Prince Xiao Tong of the Liang dynasty. Reaching Japan by the Nara period and treasured by Heian-era aristocrats, manuscripts of the Wen Xuan reveal the deep cultural ties between Japan and continental East Asia. A meaningful destination for travelers drawn to classical Chinese thought, calligraphic beauty, and the literary world that shaped Japan's classical age.

Discover the Excavated Items from the Yokoi Temple Ruins in Yamato Province, an Important Cultural Property of Japan housed at the Osaka Museum of History. Unearthed from a long-vanished Nara-period temple in Nara City, the collection includes a gilt-bronze standing Bodhisattva, a Tang-influenced mountain-cloud double luan-bird mirror, ancient bronze coins, and other ritual metalwork that vividly evoke eighth-century Buddhist devotion.

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.

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.

Discover the National Treasure bone repository vessel excavated from Miyajidake Shrine — a stunning Nara-period triple-layered cinerary urn of earthenware, bronze, and blown glass housed at the Tokyo National Museum, revealing ancient Japan's cremation practices and Silk Road connections.

Volume 78 of the Yogacarabhumi, copied in 767 for the monk Gyoshin's vow to transcribe 2,700 scrolls, finished by his disciples after he died. A twelve-metre scroll.

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.

Discover the Tekagami (292 Leaves), a registered work of art at Tokyo National Museum. Compiled in 1861 by Edo Shogunate official painter Sumiyoshi Hirotsura, this rare album contains 292 fragments of Japan's finest ancient calligraphy spanning a thousand years from Nara to Edo periods.

Beneath the central pillar of a vanished Gango-ji pagoda lay gold, beads and eighth-century coins, unearthed in 1927 and now kept at the Nara National Museum.

Discover the Kofuku-ji Kondo Chindangu, a National Treasure collection of over 1,800 sacred ritual objects buried beneath the Central Golden Hall in the 8th century. View gold, silver vessels, mirrors, crystals, and precious gems at the National Treasure Hall in Nara and the Tokyo National Museum.

The Sanzon Senbutsu is a fired-clay plaque of a seated Buddha and two standing attendants, designated in 1901 among the earliest protected objects in Japan.

The Tennin-mon Sen from Asuka's Okadera is a square clay tile carved with a celestial being lifting a scarf, a rare survival now held at the Kyoto National Museum.