National Treasures of Tokyo

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.

The National Treasure Yamai no Sōshi paints twelfth-century illness with rare candour, watching the sick and the onlookers who laugh, stare, or look away.

At the Kyoto National Museum, the National Treasure Gaki Zoshi pictures hungry ghosts unseen by the living, its seven scenes moving from torment to salvation.

Faceless courtiers fill the picture hidden beneath the sutra text. This National Treasure at the Kyoto National Museum was copied over an abandoned scroll in 1192.

A Southern Song celadon vase of shimokabura form, a Japanese National Treasure with a smooth, crackle-free pale-blue glaze. Its kiln is still debated by scholars.

The National Treasure Nukatadera Garan narabini Jōrizu, held by the National Museum of Japanese History in Sakura, Chiba, is a rare large-scale map painted in the late Nara period (8th century) on four joined panels of hemp cloth. Depicting the jōri land-grid of Heguri District in Yamato Province and the detailed precinct of Nukatadera at its lower center, the map is an irreplaceable primary source on ancient Japanese land administration and Buddhist architecture.

This National Treasure is Retired Emperor Go-Uda's autograph diary, brushed in 1319 in the margins of an annotated court almanac, now preserved in Sakura, Chiba.

A National Treasure near Tokyo: a Southern Song printing of the Hanshu in 61 fascicles, holding the earliest reliable Chinese record of Japan, the Wa people.

A complete Southern Song printing of the Book of the Later Han, kept in Sakura, whose account of the eastern peoples names Queen Himiko and an embassy of 57 CE.

A National Treasure near Tokyo: the Song-dynasty Shiji printed by Huang Shanfu, the oldest complete copy of the three-commentary edition, all 130 chapters intact.

An Izumo hillside yielded 358 Yayoi bronze swords in 1984, with 16 spearheads and 6 bells beside them. This National Treasure hoard reset Japanese archaeology.

At the Tokyo National Museum, the National Treasure Akikusa-mon Tsubo is a 12th-century Atsumi-ware jar incised with autumn grasses and dragonflies, found in 1942.

A National Treasure at the Tokyo National Museum: an 8.4-meter scroll of dyed papers, its 48 waka written in cursive kana, the script that became hiragana.

Held at the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno, Ishinpō (Nakarai Family Copy) is the oldest surviving medical encyclopedia in Japan, compiled by the court physician Tanba no Yasuyori in 984 during the Heian period. Its thirty handscrolls preserve passages from more than two hundred Chinese medical texts of the Sui and Tang dynasties, many of them otherwise lost, making this National Treasure an indispensable key to the history of East Asian medicine, language, and calligraphy.

The Uta-awase (Jikkanbon), or 'Poetry Contests in Ten Scrolls,' is Japan's oldest compiled anthology of courtly poetry matches. Held at the Sonkeikaku Bunko in Komaba, Tokyo, this National Treasure was conceived by the regent Fujiwara no Yorimichi in the 11th century to gather 46 poetry contests spanning 170 years, from the Ninna era (885-889) to 1056. Surviving as an unfinished working draft with editorial annotations and over ten distinct calligraphic hands, the five scrolls preserved by the Maeda Ikutokukai Foundation, together with companion scrolls at Yomei Bunko and the Tokyo National Museum, form one of the most important documents in classical Japanese literature.

Held at the Tokyo National Museum, this National Treasure is the oldest surviving manuscript of the Eiga Monogatari, a historical tale in kana script chronicling roughly two centuries of Heian court life centered on Fujiwara no Michinaga. Copied in the Kamakura period, the seventeen volumes pair large-format and masu-format books transmitted through the Sanjōnishi family, with a documented provenance stretching back more than five hundred years.

On the back of the Akihagi-jo handscroll lies a Tang copy of the Huainanzi's military chapter, older than the poems on its front. Both sides are National Treasures.

The Kujo family Engishiki at the Tokyo National Museum is the oldest surviving copy of Heian Japan's great legal code, valued for its red marks and verso documents.

Brushed in 1124, this is the oldest surviving Zen calligraphy. Cut in two long ago, its front half is National Treasure number one, the supreme tearoom scroll.

Held at the Tokyo National Museum, these eight National Treasure scrolls gather the ordination paper, court appointment, and Tang travel permits of the monk Enchin.

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.