周年記念・創業記念のオーダーメイド絵画

BUSINESS ART ― Anniversary

For a milestone year, the journey so far in one painting.

An anniversary is a time to look back on the feelings you started with and everything built up since.

Apart from a commemorative book or ceremony, I paint the origin of the company and where it is heading as one original work that stays in the company for years. I can also paint what has been passed down from the previous generation at the time of a business succession.

Over 140,000 companies reach a milestone every year

According to Teikoku Databank, 145,159 companies in Japan mark a round-number anniversary (every ten years from founding) in 2026. Of these, 2,371 turn 100, 17,939 turn 50, and the largest group, 26,663 companies, turns 20. 457 listed companies also celebrate an anniversary this year, with names such as Toyota Industries, Toray, Shueisha and Fujikyu among the 100-year companies. Every company, large or small, meets a milestone once a decade.

46,708 companies have been in business for over 100 years

Another Teikoku Databank survey found 46,708 companies at least 100 years old as of December 2025 — 3.11% of all companies, passing 3% for the first time. 1,836 are over 200 years old, 905 over 300, 47 over 500, and 11 have continued for more than 1,000 years. The oldest is Kongo Gumi in Osaka, founded in 578. It is said to have begun with a temple carpenter invited by Prince Shotoku to build Shitennoji Temple, and it has been building temples and shrines for more than 1,400 years.

About 40% of the world's 100-year companies are Japanese

In the "World Longevity Company Ranking" by Nikkei BP Consulting's Anniversary Business Lab (2020), Japan ranked first in the world for companies over 100 years old: 33,076 companies, or 41.3% of the world total (the US, in second place, had 24.4%). For companies over 200 years old, Japan's 1,340 make up 65% of the world total — two out of every three. (Because the timing and counting method differ from Teikoku Databank's survey, the numbers are not the same.)

Yamagata has the second-highest share of long-established companies

Looking at the share of companies over 100 years old by prefecture, as of December 2025 Kyoto ranks first at 5.45%, Yamagata, where I live, second at 5.44%, and Niigata third at 5.07%. The gap with Kyoto is just 0.01 points, and both are far above the national average of 3.11%. In the previous year's survey, too, Yamagata was second (5.34%) to Kyoto (5.35%) by 0.01 points. According to Teikoku Databank's Yamagata branch, there were 921 long-established companies in the prefecture as of September 2024.

Trade nurtured by the Kitamaebune ships and the Mogami River

The prefectures with the highest shares are clustered on the Sea of Japan coast, such as Niigata and Fukui. Teikoku Databank points to their history as ports of call for the Kitamaebune, the merchant ships that linked Hokkaido and Osaka from the mid-Edo period to the Meiji era, making them centers of commerce from early on. In Yamagata, river transport on the Mogami, starting from Sakata Port, flourished, and storehouses holding safflower and rice lined its banks.

Inns, sake breweries and confectioners

By industry, the most common long-established businesses in Yamagata are inns, with 57 companies. Surrounded by the Zao and Azuma mountains and Mt. Chokai, Yamagata has hot springs dating back to the Heian period, and some inns began as the keepers of the springs. Second are sake brewers, with 40 companies: when the economy shifted from rice to money in the Meiji era, many families turned their rice storehouses into breweries. Third are confectioners, with 39: near castle towns and river landings, merchants once served sweets as a kind of medicine, much like tea, and many shops still carry on their local specialties. Nationwide, 91.9% of sake brewers have been in business for over 100 years.

Companies that have continued for over 800 years

The oldest company in Yamagata is Ito Tekko in Tsuruoka, founded in 1189, at the start of the Kamakura period, as a maker of castings for shrines and temples — more than 830 years ago. Masugataya, an inn at the remote Ubayu hot spring in Yonezawa, dates its spring to 1533. In Yamagata City there are a kimono shop founded in 1578 and an iron casting company founded in 1604. And in 2024, Denroku, a confectioner known across Yamagata, reached its 100th year.

Walking through towns in Yamagata, I often come across the signs of sake breweries, inns and sweet shops handed down for generations. Behind each sign are the founder's wishes and the long years of the people who carried them on.

Why choose something that stays?

Anniversary events tend to center on things that end within the year: a ceremony, commemorative gifts, a company history book. Yet the founding spirit and the values you look back on at a milestone keep supporting the company in the years that follow. As people change and the business grows, words alone carry them less and less.

A painting becomes part of the everyday view. Hung at the reception, in a meeting room, or in the president's office, it is seen without explanation, and from time to time it reminds people what this company has always valued. The letter that accompanies the painting can also be read aloud at the anniversary ceremony.

Art and well-being

In 2019, the WHO Regional Office for Europe published a review of research on the arts and health. Drawing on the results of more than 3,000 studies, it found that the arts play a major role in preventing ill health, promoting health, and managing and treating illness across the lifespan.

A University College London study followed 6,710 adults aged 50 and over for 14 years. People who visited museums, galleries, theatre or concerts every few months or more had a 31% lower risk of dying during the follow-up period than those who never did (BMJ, 2019).

A painting given for an anniversary stays in view of the people who work there every day, long after the ceremony. I hope to deliver the company's story together with an everyday life that has art in it.

What kind of painting will it be?

I talk with you about why you started your business, the values you hold, and the future you want to bring to people.

I gather the words and feelings that come up again and again in our conversation, and turn them into color, form and light in one original painting.

Each painting comes with a letter that explains why these colors were chosen and what the work holds, so the story remains in words as well.

Using the work in company materials

If you would like to use photos of the work in a company brochure or recruitment page, not only display it in the office, I will quote according to the use.

Price & Timeline

It usually takes about two months from the first conversation to delivery.

From ¥239,000 (framing included)

See the Pricing page for sizes, and the BUSINESS ART page for the process and pricing by how the work will be used.