Heian

Legend says Kūkai threw this vajra from China and found it caught in a Kōyasan pine. Trace the Heian implement at the heart of the mountain's founding legend.

A Tang imperial anthology compiled in 658, the Wenguan Cilin was lost in China yet survived in Japan. Twelve scrolls at Mt. Kōya's Shōchi-in are a National Treasure.

A 1,000-scroll Tang anthology of 658, the Wenguan Cilin vanished in China but survives in Japan. Hoju-in on Mount Koya keeps one rare scroll, a National Treasure.

A Heian manuscript of Kūkai's Bunkyō Hifuron, his anthology of Chinese poetic theory, sits at Mount Kōya's Sanbō-in and preserves Tang texts now lost in China.

A National Treasure at Kongōbu-ji on Mount Kōya, the Hōkanshū is 54 scrolls of some 692 medieval documents, including an autograph letter by Minamoto no Yoshitsune.

Discover the Wooden Seated Amida Nyorai, a National Important Cultural Property preserved at Mount Koya (Koyasan) in Wakayama Prefecture. Originally enshrined as the principal image of the Daikaidō (Great Assembly Hall) — a memorial hall founded in 1175 by Princess Shōshi (Itsutsuji Saiin) for her father, Retired Emperor Toba — this serene seated Buddha is now safeguarded at the Koyasan Reihōkan Treasure Museum and shown periodically in special exhibitions. Explore the meeting point of imperial Pure Land devotion and esoteric Shingon spirituality at one of Japan's most sacred mountains.

Four wooden seated statues of the principal Kumano deities preserved at Kumano Hayatama Taisha in Shingu City, Wakayama. Carved from single blocks of cypress in the early Heian period and collectively designated National Treasures in 2005, these figures of Hayatama Ōkami, Fusumi Ōkami, Ketsumiko Ōkami, and Kunitokotachi-no-mikoto stand among the supreme masterpieces of Japanese deity sculpture.

A sandalwood shrine only 23 cm tall, carved in Tang China with twenty-five tiny deities and tied by tradition to the monk Kukai. A National Treasure on Mount Koya.

An early Heian Diamond World Dainichi Nyorai thought to be the original icon of Kōyasan's West Pagoda, and among the oldest Buddhist sculptures on the mountain.

A Diamond World Dainichi bearing an ink inscription dated 1062, this single-block hinoki figure shows the calm, broad style of provincial Heian workshops in Kii.

A Heian-period Dainichi Nyorai at Shakamon-in, a Kōyasan lodging by the Danjō Garan. Its 1908 listing is the earliest among the mountain's Dainichi images.

A Heian-period Tobatsu Bishamonten at Ryuko-in on Mount Koya, standing on the palms of the earth goddess in Central Asian armor, after the famous To-ji prototype.

A Heian Tobatsu Bishamonten at Shinno-in, founded by Prince Shinnyo, who set out for India and died en route, standing on the earth goddess in foreign-style armor.

A Heian-period six-armed Nyoirin Kannon at Nyoirinji on Mount Koya, a cheek resting on one hand in thought. Now held by the Reihokan and shown in rotating displays.

Dōjō-ji, Wakayama's oldest temple, holds two early-Heian wooden Bishamonten guardians, Important Cultural Properties since 1899; the larger is often loaned to Tokyo.

This late Heian wooden statue of Fudō Myōō, the Sail Fudō, belongs to Kongō Sanmai-in, the Mt. Koya temple Hōjō Masako founded in 1211 to mourn Minamoto no Yoritomo.

Two ninth-century Bodhisattvas at Dojo-ji flank a forty-four-armed Kannon. Single-block carvings rich with gold leaf, their names Nikko and Gakko stay unconfirmed.

At Jison-in below Koyasan sits a cypress Miroku Buddha dated 892, a National Treasure that anchors early Heian sculpture, shown only once every 21 years.

The largest of Kōyasan's three National Treasure document collections, holding 167 scrolls and 9 volumes, from imperial decrees to a peasants' petition in katakana.

Written in 797 by Kūkai at 24, this is the oldest manuscript in his own hand: three speakers debate the three teachings, voicing his choice of Buddhism.