Report on National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties Designation Submitted

On March 9, the Council for Cultural Affairs submitted a report on five assets to be designated as National Treasures and fifty assets to be designated as Important Cultural Properties to HAYASHI Yoshifumi, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The five assets to be designated as National Treasures were a pair of six-panel folding screen paintings, ‘The Four Seasons with the Sun and Moon’ (Amanosan Kongōji temple, Osaka); a wooden statue of the Thousand-Armed Bodhisattva Kannon, enshrined in the main hall of Rengeōin (Myōhōin temple, Kyoto); wooden statues of Four Heavenly Kings (Kōfukuji temple, Nara); Daebojagyeong Sutra, Volume 32 in Gold Characters (Kyoto National Museum); and Sugaura documents and illustrated map of Sugaura and Ōura shimo manors (Suga shrine, Shiga Prefecture). One of fifty assets to be designated as Important Cultural Properties was colored murals of Kitora Tumulus (Asuka village, Nara Prefecture). The Council for Cultural Affairs also recommended that 196 buildings, including the former Tōshōgū Treasure House, a modernist building designed by architect KISHIDA Hideto, be registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties. (Japanese)