Important Cultural Property of Tokyo

The Albino sheet of the Yamai no Soshi, a 12th-century Buddhist handscroll, was cut from its parent scroll in 1796 and named an Important Cultural Property in 1938.

A pair of gold-ground folding screens at the Tokyo National Museum: a Namban ship unloading cargo, and a procession winding toward a hilltop Christian church.

Hasegawa Tohaku's Crows and Egrets, a pair of six-panel ink screens from around 1605, sets black crows against white egrets in monochrome. Where to see it today.

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.

At Tokyo's Artizon Museum, this Tokiwa scroll of the Heiji Monogatari Emaki paints the 1159 war apart from its famous kin, from Tokiwa's flight to a court purge.

Volume eight of the nine-scroll Shui Kotokuden, a Kamakura life of Honen, founder of Japan's Pure Land school, drafted in 1301 by Shinran's great-grandson Kakunyo.

This Kamakura-period handscroll, an Important Cultural Property in a private Tokyo collection, illustrates the diary of Murasaki Shikibu, author of Genji.

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 Silk-Painted Biography of Prince Shōtoku, a set of four hanging scrolls designated as a National Important Cultural Property and held by Myōan-ji temple in Bandō City, Ibaraki Prefecture. Created during the Kamakura period to support the Pure Land mission in eastern Japan, this masterpiece depicts about seventy scenes from Prince Shōtoku's legendary life. Learn about its founding by Jōnen, a disciple of Shinran, the painting's iconographic highlights, where to see the faithful replica, visitor access, and surrounding pilgrimage sites.

Discover the Important Cultural Property bokuseki by Sekishitsu Zenkyū—a Zen incense-offering verse (nenkōgo) written in 1363 during the Nanbokuchō period. Owned by the Tokiwayama Bunko and housed at the Tokyo National Museum, this majestic calligraphic work embodies the spiritual depth of medieval Japanese Zen Buddhism. Learn about its history, significance, and how to visit.

Discover the Former Asakura House (Kyu Asakura House), an Important Cultural Property in Daikanyama, Tokyo. Built in 1919, this Taisho-era wooden mansion features elegant tatami rooms, detailed woodwork, and a stunning hillside strolling garden with stone lanterns and seasonal foliage.

Eitai Bridge over the Sumida in Tokyo, a steel tied-arch bridge of 1926 built after the Great Kanto Earthquake, had the longest steel arch span in Japan.

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.

Completed in 1933 at Shirokanedai, Tokyo, the Former Residence of Prince Asaka was designated an Important Cultural Property in 2015. Lalique glass survives inside.

Completed in 1924 where the Arakawa splits from the Sumida, this concrete sluice by Aoyama Akira became an Important Cultural Property in 2024. Free to visit.

Soto-Sakuradamon holds the largest masugata court left at Edo Castle and the ground where Ii Naosuke fell in 1860. Free to pass, and lit nightly until 9 p.m.

Tayasumon in Kitanomaru Park is the oldest surviving building at Edo Castle, dated to 1636 by an inscription on its door fittings. Free to walk through at any hour.

The First Factory of the former Brewing Research Institute in Kita, Tokyo, built in 1904 by Tsumaki Yorinaka after German breweries, is a vaulted brick sake plant.