National Treasures of Japan are the most precious of Japan's Tangible Cultural Properties, as determined and designated by the Agency for Cultural Affairs (a subsidiary of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology). A Tangible Cultural Property is considered to be of historic or artistic value, classified either as "buildings and structures", or as "fine arts and crafts". Each National Treasure must show outstanding workmanship, a high value for world cultural history, or exceptional value for scholarship.
The designated items provide an overview of the history of Japanese art and architecture from ancient to modern times, with the earliest archaeological National Treasures dating back 4,000 years, and the Akasaka Palace dating from the early 20th century. In Japan, the first indications of stable living patterns and civilization date to the Jōmon period, from about 14,000 BC to 300 BC. Clay figurines (dogū) and some of the world's oldest pottery, discovered at sites in northern Japan, have been designated as the oldest National Treasures in the "archaeological materials" category. Some of the earliest items in this category are objects discovered in sutra mounds from the Kamakura period. A proportion of the oldest designated National Treasures were directly imported from mainland China and Korea.
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