Muromachi

A middle Muromachi-period hall in Tokyo. One single ink inscription found there fixed its own date, the temple's own name and its own image all at once.

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.

An ink painting on deposit at the Tokyo National Museum, owned by a foundation. Its title names Shide alone, and not the usual pair of the two figures.

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.

A Southern Song-period silk painting of a quail bearing the "Zakkashitsu-in" connoisseurship seal of Shogun Ashikaga Yoshinori, this Important Cultural Property descends from the celebrated Higashiyama lineage of Chinese paintings cherished by the Ashikaga shogunal house, and is privately preserved in Tokyo as a quiet witness to Japan's medieval engagement with classical Chinese art.

A hanging scroll in ink and color on silk, named an Important Cultural Property in 1959. Lan Ying, who painted it, was a leading landscape master of the late Ming.

Seeking Blossoms (Tankazu) by the early Ming court painter Shi Rui is a fifteenth-century Chinese masterpiece preserved in Japan as an Important Cultural Property. The hanging scroll depicts literati seeking out early-spring blossoms in a mountainous landscape, rendered in the brilliant blue-and-green style with lavish use of mineral pigments and gold. Surviving works by Shi Rui are exceptionally rare, making this painting one of the finest examples of Chinese imperial court painting preserved in Japan. It is occasionally displayed in special exhibitions at the Tokyo National Museum.

Discover the Pigeon on a Peach Branch (Momohato-zu), a Japanese National Treasure attributed to Emperor Huizong of the Northern Song Dynasty. This exquisite silk painting from 1107 showcases the boneless (mokkotsu) technique, Slender Gold calligraphy, and a provenance tracing back to Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu.

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.

This fifteenth-century pair of six-panel screens at the Tokyo National Museum is the oldest surviving Hamamatsu-zu, its mica ground glowing softly like moonlight.

A Muromachi ink painting of the poet Li Bai watching a waterfall, inscribed by the Zen monk Ishō Tokugan around the early 1420s, the oldest such work in Japan.

A pair of Muromachi scrolls of reeds and geese in ink and light colour, attributed to Shugetsu, privately owned in Tokyo and an Important Cultural Property since 1934.

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 thirteenth-century Southern Song painting of water buffalo attributed to Yan Ciping, owned by the Sen-oku Hakukokan; a National Treasure since 1957.

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 Muromachi Amida hall at Shiofune Kannonji in Ome, Tokyo, designated in 1946: a small sanctuary ringed by an aisle, never finished, copper-roofed since 1961.

A late Muromachi eight-legged gate at Shiofune Kannonji in Ome, Tokyo, designated in 1946: gabled thatch, a Daihisan board and guardian kings once credited to Unkei.

A late Muromachi hall at Shiofune Kannonji in Ome, Tokyo, designated in 1946: a thatched esoteric hall and shrine cabinet with a hidden Kannon shown 4 times a year.

The Niomon Gate of Takahata Fudoson in Hino, Tokyo, a late Muromachi gate, was restored to its planned two-storey form in 1959 and houses Muromachi guardian kings.

The Fudo Hall of Takahata Fudoson in Hino, Tokyo, rebuilt at the foot of the hill in 1342 after a gale, is a five-bay hall the temple calls the oldest in Tokyo.