Since ancient times, Sagano in northwestern Kyoto has been admired for its beautiful natural scenery. Frequented by court aristocrats and the Japanese imperial family, it has long been adored as a famous sightseeing attraction. In the early part of the Heian period (794–1192), Emperor Saga (786–842) established an imperial villa in Sagano named Saga’in, and on the recommendation of the Buddhist monk Kūkai (774–835), he also erected sculptures of the Five Great Wisdom Kings on its grounds. Years later in 876, Princess Seishi (810–879) converted the villa into a Buddhist temple, founding Daikakuji Temple. To commemorate the 1150th anniversary of Daikakuji’s founding in 2026, the Tokyo National Museum is displaying the temple’s treasured artifacts. Among these include masterpieces by the celebrated painter Kanō Sanraku (1559–1635), which span multiple walls of one of the temple’s important buildings previously used as the sleeping quarters of Empress Tōfukumon’in. In addition to more than a hundred of such large-scale paintings, this exhibition features numerous works of calligraphy by various emperors that trace the history of the development of Buddhism, as well as the sculptures of the Five Great Wisdom Kings and other famous works of Esoteric Buddhist art.