Admiring ‘Pine Trees in the Snow’ again this year at Mitsui Memorial Museum

The Mitsui Memorial Museum in Tokyo’s Nihonbashi district has made it an annual event to put “Pine Trees in the Snow” (a pair of six-fold screens) by Maruyama Okyo (1733-95) on display at the end of year. The painting — today, a government-designated national treasure housed at the museum — is said to be the magnum opus of the Edo-period painter.

“Pine Trees in the Snow”

Evergreen pine trees are a symbol of longevity and auspiciousness, while snow represents freshness and purity. Purportedly produced on order from the merchant Mitsui family, Okyo put the two elements together in a divine atmosphere created by using gold paint to depict a refreshing winter morning. The painting was used by the family for auspicious occasions, such as in a tea offering to Emperor Meiji in 1887.

In “National Treasure Pine Trees in the Snow and Noh Masks: Ingenious Design in Noh,” an exhibition featuring Okyo’s masterpiece set to open on Dec. 8, 2023, the museum will also put on display some of the finest noh theater masks among its collection and give special attention to the various facial expressions they portray. Elegant karaori and nuihaku costumes for female roles in noh will also be showcased.

National Treasure Pine Trees in the Snow and Noh Masks: Ingenious Design in Noh

Dec 8 (Fri), 2023 – Jan 27 (Sat), 2024

Mitsui Memorial Museum
(Nihonbashi, Tokyo)

*See outline below for details

Noh masks are immobile and thereby expressionless, or so they say. The museum says otherwise: the feelings and emotions of the characters performed by the noh actors are condensed in the form of the wooden masks. The museum aims to explore how various emotions can be expressed on noh masks by featuring a number of masks formerly passed down in the head family of the Kongo school of noh performers (collectively designated as an important cultural property of Japan), such as those of Okina (Hakushiki-jō) — used in the ritual “Okina” and other noh plays — and Magojirō (Omokage) — attributed to Kongo Magojiro, an actor of the Muromachi period (14th-16th century) who became the namesake of the type of mask used in kazura-mono, or plays where the performer wearing a wig (kazura) plays the young female protagonist — shown here.

Noh masks to go on display:

Noh costumes to go on display: