Talk:National Treasure (Japan)

As noted, Japan has more than 1000 national treasures and I don't think it's realistic to list all of them. Instead, I am thinking to make a gallery of notable National Treasures of Japan. Does anyone have some comment? --219.122.169.128 08:49, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

• 
  Illustrated scroll of the Tale of Genji
• 
  Pine Trees(right), Hasegawa Tōhaku
• Dry-lacquer statue of Ganjin,Tōshōdai-ji
  Dry-lacquer statue of Ganjin,Tōshōdai-ji
• 
  Wind God and Thunder God, Tawaraya Sōtatsu
• 
  Amanohashidate, Sesshū
• 
  Keep of Matsumoto Castle
• 
  Said to be the portrait of Minamoto no Yoritomo
• 
  Joan, Tea house
• 
  The five story pagoda, Mt. Haguro, Three Mountains of Dewa
• 
  Ōura Church

None of this makes any sense. The Zenkō-ji in Nagano, and its constituent parts are, in fact, National Treasures, but the prefecture is not even listed among the statistical numbers. What gives? All of this needs to be researched much better... NeoThe1

P.S. Do you even know how to make galleries? Please do not spam talk pages with huge, disorganised images. NeoThe1 15:00, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

OK. This chart may satisfy you.

Prefecture	Building Structures	Art Works
Hokkaido	0	0
Aomori	0	2
Iwate	1	7
Miyagi	3	3
Akita	0	1
Yamagata	1	4
Fukushima	1	2
Ibaragi	0	2
Tochigi	6	10
Gunma	0	0
Saitama	0	1
Chiba	0	8
Tokyo	1	233
Kanagawa	1	18
Niigata	0	1
Toyama	1	0
Ishikawa	0	3
Fukui	2	4
Yamanashi	2	3
Nagano	5	2
Gifu	3	3
Shizuoka	0	11
Aichi	3	6
Mie	0	4
Shiga	22	33
Kyoto	48	207
Osaka	5	55
Hyogo	11	9
Nara	64	143
Wakayama	7	29
Tottori	1	2
Shimane	2	2
Okayama	2	4
Hiroshima	7	12
Yamaguchi	3	6
Tokushima	0	0
Kagawa	2	4
Ehime	3	9
Kochi	1	1
Fukuoka	0	12
Saga	0	0
Nagasaki	3	0
Kumamoto	0	0
Oita	2	2
Miyazaki	0	0
Kagoshima	0	1
Okinawa	0	1
Total	213	860

Source: Database of National Cultural Properties, the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan.

Hey, this is pretty damn cool! NeoThe1 15:35, 5 July 2007 (UTC)

There is still a problem. Do you have any idea how to do with the section of List of National Treasures.

These are obviously wrong,

• Hirosaki (Hirosaki Castle)
• Matsuyama Castle (Iyo)
• Grand Shrine of Ise
• Shuri Castle
• Kamakura (Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine); see also Engaku-ji, above

These are inaccurate,

• Asuka, Nara (Takamatsuzuka Kofun)
• Dewa Three Mountains
• Hon'ami Kōetsu
• Kano Eitoku
• Kotokuin
• Ogata Korin
• Sesshu

I dont, and I dont wish you to urge me to build the list of ALL the national treasures.--60.56.39.14 06:50, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

Why the hell not? It would ve a) very cool and b) very encyclopaedic...if you could substantiate it, like the list above. NeoThe1 15:36, 5 July 2007 (UTC)

Sacred Mirror

The following exchange was copied from Talk:Ise Shrine:

There is only one national treasure in Ise shrine (Jingu-shicho, not Naiku [1]). 玉篇巻 is Makimono, not mirror. And "Sacred Mirror" (ja:八咫鏡 and etc.) is not a national treasure. --N yotarou 18:16, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

Why isn't the mirror a national treasure? It should be. If Israel still had the Ark of the Covenant, it would probably be a national treasure (although I'm not sure about whether Israel designates national treasures). We honor the Constitution and Declaration of Independence with a federal facility, and Britain exhibits similar diligence with the Magna Carta and Stone of Scone. 204.52.215.107 (talk) 05:46, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

And, of course, Amaterasu's Mirror is honored with the shrine itself, isn't it? So why not make it a National Treasure? 204.52.215.107 (talk) 05:51, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

It seems to me that anonymous 204.52.215.107 proposes an excellent question; and in suggesting what appeared to have been a well-reasoned answer, this user demonstrates how understandable it is to wrongly conflate national treasure with National Treasures of Japan.

I wonder if it might be a good idea to re-frame this helpful question so that this illustrative mistake can be incorporated into the main text of the article about cultural properties designated as "National Treasures" (国宝, kokuhō)? -- Tenmei

I wonder if others will agree with me that this was a very good question and a plausibly helpful illustrative mistake? --Tenmei (talk) 15:14, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

From a practical perspective, you cannot make something a National Treasure of Japan without allowing someone to see it, which is forbidden, and without confirming its location, which is never done.