Heian

A twelfth-century manuscript of the Manyoshu, Japan's oldest poetry anthology, copied by the celebrated calligrapher Fujiwara no Sadanobu onto luxurious mica-printed paper. Treasured by the Maeda lords of Kaga for over three centuries before being presented to the Emperor Meiji, it was designated a National Treasure in 2023 and is one of the Five Great Manyoshu of the Heian period.

Around 1141, Retired Emperor Toba's court copied the Lotus Sutra one scroll per person on gold-strewn papers. Trace Tesshuji's nineteen-scroll National Treasure.

This National Treasure tachi by the Ko-Bizen smith Masatsune was shogun Yoshimune's 1745 retirement gift to the Owari Tokugawa, now at Nagoya's Tokugawa Art Museum.

Japan's oldest illustrated Tale of Genji, a 12th-century National Treasure at Nagoya's Tokugawa Art Museum, shown a few weeks each November to protect its pigments.

Copied in 1160 by Fujiwara no Koreyuki, these National Treasure scrolls at the Kyoto National Museum set a complete Heian poetry anthology on ashide-e paper.

A Tang manuscript of the Book of Han, chapter 57 on poet Yang Xiong, at Kyoto National Museum. Taboo strokes and 948 reading marks trace ten centuries of study.

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.

Fujiwara no Kintō's only surviving autograph draft of the Hokuzanshō, held at the Kyoto National Museum. Its reverse hides two of Japan's oldest kana letters.

This National Treasure handscroll preserves love poems from the Kokin Wakashu in flowing kana on mica-printed Chinese paper, long credited to Ono no Tofu.

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.

This Tang-dynasty scroll at the Kyoto National Museum preserves 172 lines of the Shishuo Xinshu, the world's oldest surviving manuscript of the Chinese classic.

A National Treasure at the Kyoto National Museum, this tachi is the only blade securely attributed to the late-Heian smith Yasuie, unshortened and finely preserved.

Copied in mid-Heian times, the Iwasaki-bon preserves Volumes 22 and 24 of Japan's first chronicle, layered with ancient reading marks and 15th-century notes.

Twenty-nine letter drafts by regent Fujiwara no Tadamichi fill a 9.8-meter scroll at the Kyoto National Museum, the clearest record of the Hosshoji school's origins.

A National Treasure: book nine of the Man'yoshu on silver-flecked indigo paper, late Heian period, and the only Aigami-bon to survive as a complete scroll.

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.

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.