Nara National Museum

The Nara National Museum (奈良国立博物館 Nara Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan) is one of the pre-eminent national art museums in Japan and is famous for its collection of Buddhist art, including images, sculpture, and altar articles. The museum houses and displays works of art belonging to temples and shrines in the Nara area. Properties kept in the Shōsōin repository are exhibited each year in the autumn. In the museum's collection is the 12th-century Hell Scroll (地獄草紙), 11th or 12th-century mandala Jōdo mandara-zu, and the 9th-century sculpture of the seated Buddha Yakushi.