Heian

A Heian-period great armour at Musashi Mitake Shrine in Tokyo. The Agency calls it the finest work in Kanto; Meiji repairs took the colour from its lacing.

A Tang-dynasty copy of a letter by Wang Xizhi, kept in Tokyo. Nothing at all in his own hand survives, and so the copy itself is now the treasure here.

A Heian-period tachi held at the Tokyo National Museum in Tokyo. Its signature does survive, but several smiths in Bizen once bore this very same name.

Two Heian-period scrolls kept in Tokyo, written on paper bearing indigo cloud shapes. Tradition and inference here name two quite different hands for it.

Twelve Heian-period hanging scrolls held at the Kyoto National Museum. Twelve more of the very same name and owner hang at a different museum entirely.

A Heian-period tachi held at the Tokyo National Museum in Tokyo. Its by-name here comes from the crescent moon shapes running along the temper line of it.

A Heian-period tachi held in Tokyo. One single maker goes under three names across the one record here: the signature, a surname, and a by-name as well.

A Heian-period ceremonial sword at the Tokyo National Museum in Tokyo. Its title here uses the older variant characters for two of the words within it.

A Southern Song tea bowl in Tokyo, known as the Inaba Tenmoku. Another bowl of the very same name here was listed on exactly the same day as this one.

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.

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 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.

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.