Kamakura

Discover the National Treasure tachi by Rai Kunitsoshi, a rare midare-ba masterpiece from the late Kamakura period. Learn about its exquisite craftsmanship, the Rai school legacy, and how to appreciate Japanese swords in Tokyo.

Explore the Important Cultural Property tantō signed by Shintōgo Kunimitsu, founder of the Sōshū school and teacher of Masamune. Learn about this 13th-century Kamakura-period blade at Tokyo National Museum.

Discover the National Treasure tantō by Rai Kunitsugu, a Kamakura-period master swordsmith counted among Masamune's famed Juttetsu. Learn about its Kishū Tokugawa provenance and how to see this rare blade in Japan.

Held in a private Tokyo collection, the Nanbu Family Documents are an Important Cultural Property of Japan comprising 243 unmounted medieval letters and orders preserved by the Hachinohe (later Tōno) Nanbu clan. Spanning the Kamakura through early Edo periods, the archive includes original directives from Southern Court generals Kitabatake Akiie and Akinobu, alongside the Soga Documents — making it a vital window into the wars and politics of medieval northern Japan.

Calligraphy by the Southern Song Chan master Xutang Zhiyu on wax-coated paper, an Important Cultural Property prized as a tea-room scroll, privately held in Tokyo.

A broad, sturdy short sword by Kyoto smith Rai Kunimitsu, this Important Cultural Property belonged to Aizu lord Hoshina Masayuki and later to the Tokugawa shoguns.

The Albino sheet of the Yamai no Soshi, a 12th-century Buddhist handscroll, was cut from its parent scroll in 1796 and named an Important Cultural Property in 1938.

At Tokyo's Artizon Museum, this Tokiwa scroll of the Heiji Monogatari Emaki paints the 1159 war apart from its famous kin, from Tokiwa's flight to a court purge.

Volume eight of the nine-scroll Shui Kotokuden, a Kamakura life of Honen, founder of Japan's Pure Land school, drafted in 1301 by Shinran's great-grandson Kakunyo.

This Kamakura-period handscroll, an Important Cultural Property in a private Tokyo collection, illustrates the diary of Murasaki Shikibu, author of Genji.

Discover the Celadon Ewer with Peony Design at Tokyo National Museum — a 15th-century Longquan ware masterpiece from Ming-dynasty China, beloved in Japan as classic Tenryu-ji celadon and designated an Important Art Object.

A National Treasure dagger by Kyoto master Rai Kunitoshi, dated 1316 and made when he was about 76. Owned by Atsuta Jingu, it is shown at the Tokyo National Museum.

Discover the Silk-Painted Biography of Prince Shōtoku, a set of four hanging scrolls designated as a National Important Cultural Property and held by Myōan-ji temple in Bandō City, Ibaraki Prefecture. Created during the Kamakura period to support the Pure Land mission in eastern Japan, this masterpiece depicts about seventy scenes from Prince Shōtoku's legendary life. Learn about its founding by Jōnen, a disciple of Shinran, the painting's iconographic highlights, where to see the faithful replica, visitor access, and surrounding pilgrimage sites.

Discover the National Treasure "Autumn Pasture with Cattle" (Akino Bokugyu-zu), a masterpiece of Southern Song Chinese painting attributed to court artist Yan Ciping. Housed at the Sen-oku Hakukokan Museum in Roppongi, Tokyo, this exquisite silk scroll once belonged to the Ashikaga Shogun's famed Higashiyama Collection.

An unsigned National Treasure tanto by Soshu Sadamune at the Tokyo National Museum, once owned by a Karatsu lord, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and the Tokugawa shoguns.

This National Treasure colophon by Yuan literatus Feng Zizhen praises a lost insect scroll by Song painter Yi Yuanji. Sen no Rikyu's letter saved it from being cut.

A late Kamakura armor laced in white silk, with Fudo Myoo stenciled on its breastplate. Owned by Hinomisaki Shrine and famed for its pioneering 1805 restoration.

Discover the Former Jūrin-in Treasury, a Kamakura-period azekura storehouse designated as an Important Cultural Property, quietly nestled within the grounds of Tokyo National Museum in Ueno Park.

A National Treasure tachi forged by Bizen Saburo Kunimune in the Kamakura period, handed down in the Owari Tokugawa family and held by Nagoya's Tokugawa Art Museum.

Oda Nobunaga's prized tachi, seized from Azuchi Castle after Honno-ji in 1582. A National Treasure by Kamakura master Nagamitsu, now at Nagoya's Tokugawa Art Museum.