Important Cultural Property of Tokyo

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.

Discover the Nihon Shoki Jindaikan, a National Treasure manuscript at Kyoto National Museum. This 13th-century handwritten copy preserves Japan's oldest official mythology, including the creation of the Japanese islands and the birth of Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess. Learn about its cultural significance, viewing opportunities, and nearby attractions.

Discover the Teikeifu, a designated Important Cultural Property from Japan's tumultuous Nanbokucho period (1371). This handwritten imperial genealogy chart offers rare insights into medieval Japanese history at the National Museum of Japanese History in Sakura, Chiba.

Discover the Important Cultural Property 'Katana with Gold Inlay Inscription Rai Kunimitsu' at Tokyo National Museum. Explore this Kamakura period masterpiece by the legendary Rai school swordsmith, appraised by the prestigious Hon'ami family.

Discover the Kasuga Fudarakusan Mandala, a rare Kamakura-period masterpiece depicting the mystical fusion of Kasuga Shrine and Mount Potalaka. This Important Cultural Property at Tokyo's Nezu Museum offers a unique window into medieval Japan's syncretic religious art.

Explore the mystical Shakōki-dogū (goggle-eyed clay figurine) from Miyagi's Ebisuda Site—an Important Cultural Property at Tokyo National Museum showcasing Jomon artistry and spiritual beliefs from 3,000 years ago.

Discover the Ryukin Jutaikyo, an Important Cultural Property of Japan. This gilt bronze mirror featuring the Four Divine Beasts was excavated from a Kofun period tomb and is now preserved at Tokyo's Gotoh Museum.

Discover the enigmatic Ink Painting of Hanshan and Shide attributed to Kaō, a 14th-century masterwork representing the dawn of Japanese ink painting. Learn about the legendary Zen eccentrics, their spiritual symbolism, and how to experience this registered art treasure at Tokyo National Museum.

Discover the extraordinary Iro-Nabeshima Pine, Bamboo and Plum Design Sake Bottles (色鍋島松竹梅文瓶子), an Important Cultural Property at Kyushu National Museum. Only two of these ceremonial sake vessels exist worldwide, representing the pinnacle of Nabeshima porcelain craftsmanship from the Edo period. Learn about their history, artistic significance, and how to visit.

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.

Three small silver cups at Tokyo's Eisei Bunko, said to be from China's Jincun tombs near Luoyang. Note the surviving gilding, loose rings, and inscribed bases.

Taken in 1854 by Eliphalet Brown Jr. during Commodore Perry's expedition, this daguerreotype portrait of Tanaka Mitsuyoshi — a samurai official who negotiated with the American squadron — is one of the oldest surviving photographs of a Japanese person taken on Japanese soil. Designated a national Important Cultural Property in 2006, this quarter-plate daguerreotype is entrusted to the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum in Yebisu Garden Place, Meguro, Tokyo.

A collection of autograph manuscript drafts by the Edo-period Buddhist monk and scholar Keichū (1640–1701), designated as an Important Cultural Property of Japan. The collection includes working drafts of groundbreaking works such as the Man'yō Daishōki and Waji Shōran-shō that laid the foundations of Japanese classical studies and linguistics.

This rare 27-centimetre ken, straight and double-edged, is signed by Mitsutada, the Kamakura-era founder of Bizen's Osafune school, a smith famed for curved tachi.

Held at the Tokyo National Museum, this Important Cultural Property is a rare dated hanging scroll painted in 1792 by literati master Uragami Gyokudō at age forty-eight, just two years before he abandoned his samurai life. Discover its bright indigo-and-ochre palette and the seeds of his later masterworks.

A Kamakura silk painting of Aizen Myōō, the red king of passion, an Important Cultural Property of 1953. His iconography and where to see kindred scrolls in Tokyo.

A large Kamakura-period painting of the Buddha Amida descending on clouds with Kannon and Seishi to welcome a dying soul. Held at the Tokyo National Museum.

Held in a private Tokyo collection, this Important Cultural Property is a Kamakura-period silk painting tied to the 1299 National Treasure Ippen Hijiri-e. The single hanging scroll depicts a scene at the sacred island of Enoshima and was designated an Important Cultural Property in 1959.

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.

Tokyo’s registered properties across designations, with featured heritage and travel notes.

The complete kokuhō catalogue — browse by prefecture, period, and category.

Nationwide jūyō bunkazai — architecture, sculpture, painting, crafts, and documents.