“National Treasure Pine Trees in Snow and the Four Seasons” at Mitsui Memorial Museum from December 12; Okyo’s Screens and Depictions of the Seasons and Weather

“National Treasure Pine Trees in Snow and the Four Seasons” will be held at the Mitsui Memorial Museum in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, from Saturday, December 12, 2026 to Saturday, January 30, 2027. Centered on Maruyama Okyo’s National Treasure “Pine Trees in Snow” screens, which have become a year-end and New Year fixture, the exhibition uses calligraphy, paintings and crafts from the museum’s collection to focus on depictions of the four seasons and weather in East Asian art and on “mitate” (visual allusion). It is organized under five themes, from tea utensils and poem cards of waka poetry to a Meiji-era series, and also includes four “Seashore of the Four Seasons” screens shown for the first time.

Why now? The Mitsui family, Okyo and the year-end “Pine Trees in Snow”

The Mitsui Memorial Museum opened in October 2005 when the Mitsui Bunko Annex moved to Nihonbashi. Its galleries are on the 7th floor of the Mitsui Main Building, completed in 1929 and designated a national Important Cultural Property in 1998. According to the museum’s profile, its painting collection includes many works of the Maruyama school, with the National Treasure “Pine Trees in Snow” as its signature piece. The Mitsui family actively patronized Okyo.

This season, ahead of this exhibition, the screens are also scheduled to be shown at the Edo-Tokyo Museum’s special exhibition “Maruyama Okyo: Beyond the Real – A Spatial Revolution”. According to that exhibition’s official website, they will be on display for a limited period from November 28 to December 6. The same National Treasure can thus be seen both in a retrospective of Okyo’s career and in this exhibition, which looks at the seasons through the museum’s collection.

Highlights: Snow depicted by leaving the white of the paper unpainted

“Pine Trees in Snow” dates from the Edo period (18th century) and is shown in Gallery 4. According to the museum, the snow is expressed not with white pigment but by leaving the white ground of the paper unpainted. On the left screen, the pine needles are painted more densely toward the bottom, creating a full, rounded sense of volume.

The museum explains that the gold paint brushed over the surface and the gold dust at the bottom evoke a snowy landscape reflecting the sunlight and also create a festive mood. The circumstances of its creation are not known.

In the same gallery, it can be compared with “Deer and Pine Trees in Snow (right screen)” by Okyo’s pupil Yamaguchi Soken. Soken depicted snow by layering white pigment, so master and pupil differ in how they painted snow.

What can visitors see? Five themes and the “Seashore of the Four Seasons” screens shown for the first time

• Galleries 1–3 “The Four Seasons in Tea Utensils”: Focuses on poetic names (“mei”) that evoke the seasons and on painted flowers and plants. Works include a Chinese round-bodied tea caddy named “Awayuki” (Light Snow) (Southern Song dynasty), a Seto Hashihime-type water jar named “Ariake” (Dawn) (Momoyama period) and a Totoya tea bowl named “Kasumi” (Haze) (Joseon dynasty). A cherry-wood tea box (Edo period) has cherry petals in gold maki-e on the inside of the lid, based on a design by Okyo.

• Gallery 4 “Depicting the Seasons and Weather”: Takes up the depiction of weather with form, such as snow and thunder, and weather without form, such as spring warmth and summer humidity. Kawabata Gyokusho’s “June: Cooling Off at Shijo” from Twelve Months of Famous Places in Kyoto (1898) expresses the sultry heat of a summer night with gradations of pale ink.

• Gallery 5 “Composing the Seasons in Verse”: Calligraphy such as poem cards with waka on the four seasons. For the first time in about six years, the museum shows together the “Three Shikishi”: the “Tsugi Shikishi” attributed to Ono no Michikaze, the “Sunshoan Shikishi” attributed to Ki no Tsurayuki and the “Masu Shikishi” attributed to Fujiwara no Yukinari. A “Double Hand Box with Boat and Moon in Maki-e” (Muromachi period), which hints at the scene of a Chinese poem through ashide-e (reed-script pictures), is also shown.

• Gallery 6 “The Seasons and Daily Life”: Part of Mizuno Toshikata’s series “Mitsui’s Taste: Brocades of the Capital” (13 prints in all), depicting women’s seasonal domestic customs and said to have doubled as advertising for products of the Mitsui Dry Goods Store. “Morning Snow” (1904) depicts a woman going out in snow clogs.

• Gallery 7 “Bundling the Seasons”: Art that contains spring, summer, autumn and winter in a single picture or set of works. The Important Cultural Property “Sun, Moon, Pines and Cranes” screens (Muromachi period) depict spring and summer on the right screen and autumn flowers and plants on the left, with a sun and moon of inlaid metal plates. Kano Eishin’s “Landscapes of the Four Seasons,” Kameoka Kirei’s “Illustrated Scroll of Shuten Doji” and Kawabata Gyokusho’s “Flowers and Plants” (on deposit) are also shown.

In Gallery 4, four “Seashore of the Four Seasons” screens are shown for the first time. They are in the Maruyama-school style but bear no signature, and the painter is unknown. According to the museum, they partly resemble the “Seashore of the Four Seasons” that Okyo’s son Maruyama Ozui painted for the Imperial Palace, indicating that such subjects were part of the Maruyama school’s repertoire.

An example of the “mitate” the exhibition focuses on is Sakai Hoitsu’s “Rabbits and Autumn Grasses” sliding doors, which the museum explains treat the grain of the wooden panels as wind. The “Illustrated Scroll of Shuten Doji” in Gallery 7 depicts a garden of the four directions and four seasons, showing that the demon’s dwelling is an otherworldly space.

Tickets, prices and advance tickets

Admission is 1,200 yen for adults, 700 yen for university and high school students and 1,000 yen for those aged 70 and over (proof required), and free for junior high school students and younger. Groups of 20 or more pay 1,000 yen for adults and 600 yen for university and high school students. Those who show a disability certificate and one caregiver are admitted free, and Mirairo ID can also be used. Showing a ticket stub during the run allows second and subsequent visits at the group rate.

Advance tickets cost 1,000 yen for adults and 600 yen for university and high school students. They are sold at the museum’s reception ticket counter from 10:00 to 16:30 on opening days until Monday, November 23 (national holiday). They are non-refundable. They are also sold through ART PASS.

Access and opening hours

Opening hours are 10:00–17:00 (last entry 16:30). The museum is closed on Mondays but opens on January 4 and January 11. It is closed for the New Year holidays from Monday, December 28 to Sunday, January 3.

The address is Mitsui Main Building 7F, 2-1-1 Nihonbashi Muromachi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, and the entrance is in the atrium on the 1st floor of Nihonbashi Mitsui Tower. It is a 1-minute walk from Exit A7 of Mitsukoshimae Station on the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line, 4 minutes from Exit B9 of Nihombashi Station on the Tokyo Metro Ginza and Tozai Lines and 7 minutes from the Nihonbashi Exit of JR Tokyo Station. There is no dedicated parking.

Editor’s perspective

While featuring a single National Treasure, the exhibition uses the museum’s collection to survey “ways of expressing the seasons,” from the poetic names of tea utensils to waka and Meiji-era product advertising. Placing Okyo, who left the snow as the white of the paper, alongside Soken, who layered white pigment, in the same gallery clearly shows the exhibition’s focus on technique.

The museum is currently holding “100 Selected Tea Bowls from the Museum Collection” until November 23. The Totoya tea bowl named “Kasumi” shown there will appear in Galleries 1–3 of this exhibition as a tea utensil with a seasonal name, an example of the same vessel being introduced in a different context depending on an exhibition’s approach.

Overview

Name: National Treasure Pine Trees in Snow and the Four Seasons
Dates: Saturday, December 12, 2026 – Saturday, January 30, 2027
Hours: 10:00–17:00 (last entry 16:30)
Closed: Mondays (open on January 4 and January 11), New Year holidays (December 28 – January 3)
Venue: Mitsui Memorial Museum
Address: Mitsui Main Building 7F, 2-1-1 Nihonbashi Muromachi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo (entrance in the 1F atrium of Nihonbashi Mitsui Tower)
Admission: Adults 1,200 yen (groups 1,000 yen), university and high school students 700 yen (groups 600 yen), 70 and over 1,000 yen (proof required), junior high school students and younger free. Groups are 20 or more. Those who show a disability certificate and one caregiver free
Advance tickets: Adults 1,000 yen, university and high school students 600 yen (sold at the museum’s reception until November 23; also sold through ART PASS)
Organizer: Mitsui Memorial Museum
Inquiries: 050-5541-8600 (Hello Dial)
Official website: https://www.mitsui-museum.jp/exhibition/next.html
*Information as of October 20, 2026. Please check the official website for the latest information.

*Top image: Reference image: Maruyama Okyo, “Pine Trees in Snow” (right screen), National Treasure, Mitsui Memorial Museum (public domain, from Wikimedia Commons)

*This article was compiled by the TOKYO ART SPHERE editorial team based on press materials from the Mitsui Memorial Museum (September 11, 2026) and information on its official website and on the official website of the special exhibition “Maruyama Okyo: Beyond the Real – A Spatial Revolution.”

Text: TOKYO ART SPHERE Editorial Team