Mitsui Memorial Museum opened on the 7th floor of the Mitsui Main Building on October 8th, 2005 and the year of 2020 is its 15th anniversary. The museum had organized special exhibitions every 5 years since its opening, and this year presents an exhibition entitled “Masterpieces from the Mitsui Family Collections,” which introduces renowned masterpieces and their equivalents including the works designated as National Treasure and Important Cultural Property from our collection. The exhibition is composed of 2 parts; the ancient arts from all over the East are exhibited in the first half and those of Japan are in the second .
The exhibition was originally designated for showing our hospitality to visitors from all over the world on the occasion of Tokyo Olympic Games, which was actually postponed due to the pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus. The exhibition, however, is carried out in the original format to commemorate our 15th anniversary. This is the first attempt of displaying our collections divided into two categories based on the geographic location of production, which provides viewers a large perspective of the East and Japan to understand the distinctive characteristics of Mitsui Family Collections.