Nara National Museum, Nara Overview
A red brick building of 1889 in the middle of the park, given over entirely to Japanese Buddhist art: statues, ritual bronzes, sutras and painted mandalas. Each autumn it shows treasures from the Shoso-in repository at Todai-ji, objects that arrived along the Silk Road in the eighth century and are otherwise never displayed. That show is a national event and it books out. Closed Mondays.
