Report on National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties Designation Submitted

On March 11, the Council for Cultural Affairs submitted a report on four assets to be designated as National Treasures and 46 assets to be designated as Important Cultural Properties to HASE Hiroshi, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The four assets to be designated as National Treasures are ‘Scenes in and around the Capital (紙本金地著色洛中洛外図)’ (Tokyo National Museum), painted by IWASA Katsumochi (Matabei), who is regarded as the originator of ukiyo-e; Wooden seated statue of Eison and its assemblage of items deposited inside of the statue (木造叡尊坐像 像内納入品) (Saidaiji temple, Nara); Dōmaru with black leather lacing (黒韋威胴丸) (Kasuga taisha, Nara); and Shōmyōji shōgyō, documents in Kanazawa bunko (称名寺聖教金沢文庫文書) (Kanazawa bunko, Kanagawa), which inform the history of Buddhism in the Kamakura period. One of the 46 assets to be designated as Important Cultural Properties is ‘Sazanami (漣)’, a work by nihonga artist FUKUDA Heihachirō. The Council for Cultural Affairs also recommended that 199 buildings, including the Villa of the former Yamazaki family and the former Usui family (Sekisui House ‘Type A’), the only surviving example of the first domestically produced pre-fabricated house that still standing in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, be registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties. (Japanese)