Newly designated national treasures featured at Tokyo National Museum

*The second half of the exhibition run starts on Feb. 14, 2023. Some of the exhibits have been rotated.

Every year, a certain number of Japan’s tangible cultural properties — sculptures, paintings, calligraphy, pottery, architecture, textiles, archaeological finds, etc. — of artistic or historic value are newly designated as ‘national treasures’ or ‘important cultural properties’ by the government as part of its effort to protect and preserve the nation’s precious treasures.* For 2023, four assets were selected for designation as national treasures and 47 assets for designation as important cultural properties, a great number of which is now on display at the Tokyo National Museum.

*Assets deemed “inherently superior or have high artistic value” are selected from among designated important cultural properties for designation as national treasures. To date, a total of 906 assets have been designated as national treasures from a pool of 10,872 designated important cultural properties (including the newly designated).

Special Thematic Exhibition
2023 Newly Designated National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties

Jan 31 (Tue) – Feb 19 (Sun), 2023

Tokyo National Museum
(Ueno Park, Tokyo)

*See outline below for more info

The newly designated national treasures and important cultural properties are featured in a special thematic exhibition organized by Japan’s Cultural Affairs Agency at Tokyo National Museum’s Heiseikan.

Of the four assets selected for designation as national treasures this year, three assets including the famous Soranjo or the Tang-dynasty copy of Chinese calligrapher Wang Xizhi’s letters (7th-8th century) selected from among items housed at The Museum of the Imperial Collection, Sannomaru Shozokan in Tokyo are not showcased in this exhibition, but only introduced on a panel.

However, some of the 1,965 artifacts of the Late Paleolithic period (ca. 28,000-13,000 BCE) unearthed from the Shirataki Sites in Engaru, Hokkaido Prefecture (top photo), set to be collectively designated as a national treasure, are cased in glass and can be viewed up close. Shirataki’s artifacts are the first from the old stone age period to be designated as national treasures and now the oldest.

The four new national treasures (2023)

— Copy of Calligraphy by Wang Xizhi (Soranjo)
Tang dynasty, 7th-8th century
(The Museum of the Imperial Collection, Sannomaru Shozokan, Tokyo)

— Sarashina Diary
By Fujiwara no Sadaie (1162-1241)
Kamakura period, 13th century
(The Museum of the Imperial Collection, Sannomaru Shozokan, Tokyo)

— Collection of Myriad Leaves, Vols. 2 & 4 (Kanazawa version)
By Fujiwara no Sakanobu (b. 1088)
Heian period, 12th century
(The Museum of the Imperial Collection, Sannomaru Shozokan, Tokyo)

— Objects from Shirataki Sites, Hokkaido (Now on display)
Late Paleolithic period, ca. 28,000-13,000 BCE
(Engaru Archaeological Center, Hokkaido)

Among the newly designated important cultural properties on display is the wooden standing statue of Amida Nyorai (Kamakura period, 13th century) from the Jotoku-ji temple in Kyoto. An expert of Japanese sculpture told reporters at a press preview that the statue was one of a very few Amida Nyorai statues in Japan that, for some reason, has its left hand higher up than the right.

“Tsukiji Akashi-cho Town, Shintomi-cho Town, Hama-cho Gashi Zone,” a Showa-era set of paintings by nihonga (modern Japanese-style painting) artist Kaburaki Kiyokata (1878-1972) is also among the assets selected to be designated as important cultural properties, but not on display.

By rule, national treasures and important cultural properties cannot be kept on display for an extended period of time. Some of the more fragile assets now on display will be rotated halfway through the exhibition.

(Photos by Kazuki Matsuura)