Sun and Moon Landscapes of the Four Seasons: A Painting That Waited 66 Years to Become a National Treasure
A gold sun hangs over green spring mountains on the right screen. On the left, a silver moon rises above snow-laden pines. Between them, painted waves surge across twelve panels of paper as if the sea itself were breathing. This is the Nichigetsu Shiki Sansui-zu Byobu, the "Sun and Moon Landscapes of the Four Seasons," a pair of six-panel folding screens kept at Kongo-ji Temple in Kawachinagano, southern Osaka Prefecture.
Each screen measures 147.0 centimeters high and 313.5 centimeters wide. No signature survives, and no document records who painted them. Scholars place the work in the Muromachi period, most likely the fifteenth or sixteenth century. The screens were designated an Important Cultural Property in 1952, then elevated to National Treasure status on October 31, 2018, a 66-year interval that says something about how long it took for their unorthodox power to be fully recognized.
The essayist Shirasu Masako introduced the screens to a wide audience in her 1971 book Kakurezato (Hidden Villages). She devoted only a few pages to them, yet her suggestion that the painting hints at Buddhist truth through sun, moon, and landscape rather than depicting deities directly has shaped how viewers approach the work ever since.
Why These Screens Were Designated a National Treasure
The official explanation from the Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the composition precisely: a shoreline of pines stretches across the foreground, mountains of the four seasons rise behind it, and the sun and moon float in the sky. Great undulations of mountain and wave entangle the pines and whitecaps, and these rhythms resonate with bold gold and silver ornamentation. The database calls it an outstanding work in which the painterly and the decorative fuse, a quality the Agency identifies as characteristic of Japanese painting at its best.
That fusion is the heart of the matter. Most Muromachi landscape painting followed Chinese ink traditions. These screens belong instead to the native yamato-e lineage, with mineral pigments, applied metal, and a flattened, rhythmic sense of space. The pairing of a sun and moon over seasonal landscapes has parallels in Chinese and Korean painting, but the treatment here, with its swelling landforms and almost sculptural metalwork, reads as distinctly Japanese. The 2018 designation has been described as the first National Treasure ranking for a yamato-e folding screen of the Muromachi period.
Temple tradition holds that the screens were used in the denbo kanjo, an esoteric Buddhist initiation rite in which water is poured over the head of a practitioner receiving Shingon transmission. If so, these are not parlor decorations but ritual furniture, which may help explain their departure from conventional decorative formulas.
What to Look For
Stand before the right screen first. Spring and summer unfold beneath a sun rendered in gold, the hills colored with greens that recent digital reconstruction work by a Kyoto University project suggests were once far more vivid. The mountains do not recede politely into distance; they heave upward in rounded masses, their contours echoed by the curling crests of the waves below.
Then move to the left screen, where autumn gives way to winter under a silver moon. Look closely at the snow. The painter used two different white pigments deliberately: gofun, a shell-derived white, laid flat across the snowfields, and lead white built up in relief on the branches of the pines, so that fallen snow literally rises off the paper. Under the slanting natural light of a temple interior, the silver moon catches and flares against its silver ground, an effect that overhead museum lighting tends to flatten.
One sentence is worth keeping in mind as you look. Nothing in either screen stands still.
The waves curl like claws, the mountains bulge and lean, and the pines twist against them. Viewers from Shirasu Masako onward have read this animation as the work of someone painting devotion rather than scenery, possibly a monk-painter within the temple, though the attribution remains conjecture.
Visiting Kongo-ji and the Amano Valley
The screens are shown only during special openings, normally twice a year: in spring during the Golden Week holidays in early May, and in autumn in early November. They are displayed in the Okuden hall of the temple's Honbo residence, and crucially, without glass between you and the painting. The spring 2026 opening runs May 3 to 5, from 9:00 to 16:30, with a special viewing ticket of 1,000 yen. The temple's three monumental National Treasure statues in the Kondo hall, a seated Dainichi Nyorai flanked by Fudo Myoo and Gozanze Myoo, are opened on separate dates, so check the temple website when planning.
Kongo-ji itself rewards a slow visit. A head temple of the Omuro branch of Shingon Buddhism, it is said to have been founded by the monk Gyoki in the eighth century, with a tradition that Kukai once trained here. The temple flourished under the patronage of Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa in the twelfth century. Because women could worship at its Miedo hall in an age when the sacred mountain of Koyasan excluded them, it earned the name Nyonin Koya, "Mount Koya for Women." During the fourteenth-century schism between rival imperial courts, the temple served the Southern Court as a temporary palace.
Access is straightforward: take the Nankai Koya Line or Kintetsu Nagano Line to Kawachinagano Station, then a Nankai bus about 20 minutes to the Amanosan stop, which is directly in front of the gate. Buses run roughly once an hour, so note return times. Drivers can reach the temple in about 20 minutes from the Kishiwada-Izumi Interchange on the Hanwa Expressway via Route 170; parking holds around 50 cars at 500 yen. The surrounding Amano valley is quiet farmland and forest, and the temple's historic association with Amano sake, once prized by warlords including Oda Nobunaga and the Toyotomi house, survives in a local brewery in Kawachinagano.
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Q&A
- Can I see the Sun and Moon screens at any time?
- No. The original screens are shown only during special openings, typically over the Golden Week holidays in early May and again in early November. Dates are announced on the Kongo-ji official website. Outside those windows the temple grounds, garden, and several other halls remain open to visitors.
- Who painted the screens?
- The painter is unknown. No signature, seal, or contemporary record identifies an artist or workshop. The work is dated on stylistic grounds to the Muromachi period, around the fifteenth to sixteenth century, and one long-standing conjecture imagines a monk-painter working within the temple itself.
- Why did National Treasure designation come only in 2018?
- The screens had been an Important Cultural Property since 1952. Reappraisal of Muromachi yamato-e painting, together with renewed scholarly and public attention, led to the upgrade on October 31, 2018. The designation has been noted as the first National Treasure ranking for a Muromachi-period yamato-e folding screen.
- Is photography allowed during the special opening?
- Photography of the screens is generally not permitted, in line with the temple's treatment of its treasures. Rules can change between openings, so follow the signage and staff instructions on the day of your visit.
- What else at Kongo-ji is worth seeing on the same trip?
- The Kondo hall houses three colossal National Treasure statues: the seated Dainichi Nyorai, Fudo Myoo, and Gozanze Myoo, opened to the public on their own special dates. The temple precinct, designated a National Historic Site, includes the Miedo hall linked to the Nyonin Koya tradition and a garden suited to a quiet hour before the bus back.
Basic Information
| Name | Landscapes of the Four Seasons with Sun and Moon (Shihon Chakushoku Nichigetsu Shiki Sansui-zu) |
|---|---|
| Designation | National Treasure (painting), designated October 31, 2018; Important Cultural Property since March 29, 1952 |
| Quantity / Format | One pair of six-panel folding screens, color on paper |
| Dimensions | 147.0 cm high, 313.5 cm wide (each screen) |
| Period | Muromachi period (artist unknown) |
| Owner | Amanosan Kongo-ji Temple |
| Location | 996 Amanocho, Kawachinagano City, Osaka Prefecture |
| Viewing | Special openings in early May and early November (special viewing ticket 1,000 yen); confirm dates on the temple website |
| Access | Nankai bus from Kawachinagano Station (Nankai Koya Line / Kintetsu Nagano Line) to Amanosan stop, approx. 20 min |
References
- 国指定文化財等データベース「紙本著色日月四季山水図」
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/201/00011841
- 天野山金剛寺 公式サイト
- https://amanosan-kongoji.jp/
- 日本遺産ポータルサイト「令和8年春季 天野山金剛寺 国宝特別公開」
- https://japan-heritage.bunka.go.jp/ja/news/5870/
- WANDER 国宝「日月四季山水図屏風［金剛寺］」
- https://wanderkokuho.com/201-11841/
- MEGA CANVAS「日月四季山水図屏風」
- https://megacanvas.jp/canvas_contents/the-sun-and-moon/
Last verified: 2026.06.10