National Treasures of Tokyo

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.

A Kamakura warrior's horse-tack set at Tokyo's Musashi Mitake Shrine, the gilt-bronze saddle inlaid with iridescent shell circles, designated a National Treasure.

At the Tokyo National Museum, this Tang scroll is the oldest surviving copy of the early Tang writer Wang Bo, brushed around 685 to 689, a decade after his death.

Two white-bronze mirrors at the Tokyo National Museum, donated to Hōryūji by Empress Kōmyō in 736. Their backs cast a Daoist realm of sacred peaks and seas.

A National Treasure at Tokyo's Eisei Bunko, the Kashiwa-mimizuku Raden Kura is a Heian saddle of black lacquer inlaid with shell, with a horned owl among oak leaves.

A katana attributed to the Kamakura smith Masamune, shortened in 1609 and gold-inlaid by appraiser Hon'ami Kotoku. Once held by warrior Jo Kagemochi, now in Ueno.

A National Treasure katana by Mitsutada of Bizen, prized for its flamboyant clove temper line. Now unsigned, it bears a gold attribution by Honami Kotoku.

A National Treasure katana attributed to Sōshū Sadamune, heir to Masamune. A tortoiseshell crest carved on its shortened tang gives the blade its lasting name.

An unsigned katana by Masamune, Japan's most celebrated swordsmith. Shortened to 64.4 cm and once owned by the Kanze Noh family, it is a National Treasure in Tokyo.

Tarōsaku Masamune is a National Treasure katana attributed to Gorō Nyūdō Masamune, the late-Kamakura master who perfected the Sōshū tradition. Named after the Tokugawa retainer Mizuno Tarōsaku Masashige, the sword passed through the shōgunate and was presented in 1633 to the Maeda lords of Kaga, who have preserved it ever since. Owned by the Maeda Ikutokukai Foundation in Tokyo, it is exhibited periodically at the Sonkeikaku Bunko Branch within the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art in Kanazawa.

A National Treasure attributed to the elusive smith Gō Yoshihiro, this 64.8 cm blade passed from Hideyoshi to the Maeda lords. Edo appraisers declined to price it.

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.

A 12th-century Heian National Treasure at the Tokyo National Museum, covered with ox-cart wheels half-sunk in flowing water in gold lacquer and rare shell inlay.

Compiled in 905 for Kanzeon-ji of Dazaifu, this three-scroll National Treasure lists its halls, statues, estates and clergy, now at Tokyo University of the Arts.

An 11th-century draft handscroll at the Tokyo National Museum, copying a court poetry contest of around 889-893, with ink deletions and unfinished verses visible.

A National Treasure at the Nezu Museum, this 11th-century handscroll copies a Buddhist sutra in graceful wayo calligraphy on dyed gampi paper flecked with gold.

A small ink scroll the Chan master Xutang Zhiyu brushed near age eighty for a Japanese monk, slashed by a servant in 1637 and now a National Treasure in Tokyo.

Volume nine of the Yupian, a Chinese dictionary lost in China, survives in Japan as a Tang scroll. This Waseda National Treasure bears a Buddhist text dated 1021.

At the Tokyo National Museum, the gilt Dragon-Head Ewer fuses a Persian form, four engraved Pegasus, and an East Asian dragon. A National Treasure from Hōryū-ji.

Fujiwara no Teika's autograph diary of Retired Emperor Go-Toba's 1201 pilgrimage to Kumano, a National Treasure full of weary complaints and admired calligraphy.