National Treasures of Tokyo

Five Asuka-period murals from the Kitora tomb in Nara, the only set in Japan where all four guardians survive. Its ceiling star chart is the oldest in East Asia.

A Heian tachi mounting of Niutsuhime Shrine, spiral-wrapped in silver-plated copper with gilt fittings; the blade is lost. National Treasure, 1955; kept in Tokyo.

Discover Byōbu Dodai, a National Treasure calligraphy scroll by Ono no Michikaze, written in 928 as a draft for imperial folding screens. Housed at the Sannomaru Shōzōkan in Tokyo, this rare Heian-period masterpiece marks the birth of Japan's native wayō calligraphy style. Learn its history, highlights, and how to visit.

This late-Heian National Treasure at the Kyoto National Museum shows the dead Buddha rising from his golden coffin to preach a last sermon to his mother, Queen Maya.

The only screen painting surviving from Japan's Heian period, this 11th-century National Treasure from To-ji temple may depict the Tang poet Bai Juyi at his retreat.

Kūkai's own ninth-century draft preface to the Diamond Sutra, at the Kyoto National Museum. Sixty-three lines whose deletions catch this monk mid-thought.

Forty Tang poems by Li Bai, Wang Wei, and others fill this 5.5-meter ninth-century cursive scroll at the Kyoto National Museum, a National Treasure since 1962.

Discover Tawaraya Sōtatsu's masterpiece of Japanese ink painting, "Lotus Pond and Waterfowl" (Renchi Suikin-zu), held by the Kyoto National Museum. This National Treasure hanging scroll, painted in the early Edo period in ink alone, quietly sets two lotus stems and two little grebes in dialogue to evoke the passage of a summer. This guide introduces the painting's artistic value, the reasons for its designation, its highlights, and the surrounding sights of Kyoto's Higashiyama district.

Sesshu's View of Amanohashidate, a National Treasure in Kyoto, maps the famed sandbar from a sky-high viewpoint that never existed. An unsigned sketch turned icon.

An imperial decree of 927 granting Enchin the posthumous title Chishō Daishi, its privy seal pressed thirteen times over text brushed by Ono no Michikaze.

At the Tokyo National Museum, this Kamakura National Treasure sets shell cart wheels in a dense gold ground, bolder and more ordered than its Heian twin.

Watanabe Kazan's 1837 portrait of scholar Takami Senseki blends Western facial shading with East Asian brushwork. A National Treasure at the Tokyo National Museum.

Ninety-three Kasuga miracle tales on twenty silk scrolls, painted around 1309 by Takashina Takakane. Complete and never repainted, a National Treasure since 2021.

A National Treasure at the Tokyo National Museum, the only Peacock Wisdom King painting left from Heian Japan, admired for its gentle deity and refined gold work.

The oldest surviving painted image of Kokūzō in Japan, this 12th-century silk scroll at the Tokyo National Museum is admired for its fine cut-gold kirikane work.

A late-12th-century National Treasure of Senju Kannon at the Tokyo National Museum: forty-two arms ringed by small hands, the silk worked in fine gold kirikane.

Ito Jakuchu's National Treasure: thirty silk scrolls of birds, fish, and flowers painted over a decade for a Kyoto Zen temple, held at Tokyo's Sannomaru Shozokan.

A 12th-century Heian National Treasure at Tokyo National Museum, this silk scroll depicts Fugen Bosatsu on a six-tusked white elephant amid fine cut-gold ornament.

Discover the National Treasure 'Silk-Painted Image of the Eleven-Headed Kannon' at Nara National Museum — a 12th-century Heian-period masterpiece on silk. As one of Japan's oldest surviving silk paintings of this form of Kannon, it features an unusually naturalistic three-quarter pose, exquisite cut-gold-leaf (kirikane) decoration, and motifs newly introduced from Song-dynasty China. This guide covers the painting's iconography, history, and how to plan your visit to the museum in Nara Park.

Discover the Lotus Arabesque Maki-e Sutra Box, a National Treasure from the late Heian period housed at Nara National Museum. Crafted in the exceptionally rare lacquered-leather (shippi) technique and adorned with togidashi maki-e, this elegant container once preserved decorated sutras at Jingū-ji in Fukui.