Cypress Trees

Against a ground and clouds of gold leaf, a huge cypress twists its trunk and spreads its great boughs. Only the cypress, rocks, and an ultramarine water surface are painted, and the limited number of colors makes the cypress seem to press ever further forward. There are also traces of peeled paint, showing that many more green leaves were originally painted. It is color on paper with a gold ground, and each screen measures 170.0 cm high by 230.4 cm wide. It is designated a National Treasure.

It was originally the sliding-door paintings of the Hachijo-no-miya residence (later the Katsura-no-miya) in Kyoto. From the traces of sliding-door handle fittings on the surface and other evidence, it is thought to be from the doors of the Hachijo-no-miya residence that Toyotomi Hideyoshi had built and that was completed in December 1590. The four sliding doors were later remounted as an eight-panel screen, and during major restoration in 2013 they were divided into two screens to resolve the misalignment in the design and with conservation in mind.

The artist, Kano Eitoku, was a painter favored by Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and this work is thought to be from the last years of Eitoku, who died in September of the same year. It was handed down in the Katsura-no-miya family, became an Imperial Household possession when the family line ended, and was transferred to the Tokyo National Museum in 1920.