Kanō Hōgai (狩野芳崖, February 27, 1828 – October 5, 1888) was a Japanese painter of the

Kanō school The is one of the most famous schools of Japanese painting. The Kanō school of painting was the dominant style of painting from the late 15th century until the Meiji era, Meiji period which began in 1868, by which time the school had divided i ...

Life

The son of the local

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...

's chief painter, he was sent at the age of 18 to

Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...

to study painting formally. He stayed there for ten years and studied under Kanō Shōsen'in and other prominent artists of the time. Hōgai would eventually be called upon for such esteemed commissions as ceiling paintings for

Edo Castle is a flatland castle that was built in 1457 by Ōta Dōkan in Edo, Toshima District, Musashi Province. In modern times it is part of the Tokyo Imperial Palace in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is therefore also known as . Tokugawa Ieyasu established th ...

. He also received the honor of having some of his works displayed at the 1876 Paris International Exposition. However, despite these honors, the economic turmoil created by the fall of the shogunate in 1868 forced Hōgai to seek to support himself with income via more mundane methods. He worked at casting iron, reclaiming land, and running a shop selling writing instruments. In 1877 Hōgai returned to Edo, now called Tokyo, and worked for the wealthy

Shimazu clan The were the ''daimyō'' of the Satsuma han, which spread over Satsuma, Ōsumi and Hyūga provinces in Japan. The Shimazu were identified as one of the '' tozama'' or outsider ''daimyō'' familiesAppert, Georges ''et al.'' (1888). in contr ...

; this gave him the opportunity to study works by some of Japan's greatest painting masters, including Sesshū and Sesson. In 1884, Hōgai attracted the attention of

Ernest Fenollosa Ernest Francisco Fenollosa (February 18, 1853 – September 21, 1908) was an American art historian of Japanese art, professor of philosophy and political economy at Tokyo Imperial University. An important educator during the modernization of Japa ...

, an art critic and collector from

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

, who befriended him and bought several of his paintings. Along with Fenollosa,

Okakura Kakuzō , also known as Okakura Tenshin , was a Japanese scholar and art critic who in the era of Meiji Restoration reform promoted a critical appreciation of traditional forms, customs and beliefs. Outside Japan, he is chiefly renowned for '' The Book ...

and

Hashimoto Gahō was a Japanese painter, one of the last to paint in the style of the Kanō school. He is also considered the founder of ''Nihonga'' and was an educator who trained many ''Nihonga'' painters. Many of the painters recognized in later generations a ...

, Hōgai then took part in the Painting Appreciation Society (観画会, ''Kangakai''). The Society was created to draw attention to the traditional Japanese arts, particularly classical art of the Heian and Nara periods which were beginning to be seriously neglected, with many works sold or even destroyed due to Japan's newfound interest in the West.

Gallery

File:Kanō Hōgai, Japanese - Two Dragons in Clouds - Google Art Project.jpg, Two Dragons (In Clouds);

Meiji Era The was an Japanese era name, era of History of Japan, Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feu ...

, c. 1885. Ink on paper, framed. w135.3 × h90.2 cm.

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...

File:Kano Hogai Eagles.jpg, Hawks in a Ravine; Meiji Era, c. 1885. Ink on paper, w165.7 × h93.2 cm.

Boston Museum of Fine Arts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

File:Lions by Hogai Kano, c. 1886, sumi and color on paper - National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo - DSC06653.JPG, Lions; Meiji Era, c. 1886. Ink on paper. w49.5 × h98.3 cm.

National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo The , also known as MOMAT, is the foremost museum collecting and exhibiting modern Japanese art. The museum, in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan, is known for its collection of 20th-century art and includes Western-style and ''Nihonga'' artists. It has a bra ...

File:Hibo Kannon (悲母観音) Original on Silk Scroll.jpg, Hibo Kannon (悲母観音); Meiji Era, 1883. Ink, color and gold on silk. w84.6 × h163.9 cm.

Freer Gallery of Art The Freer Gallery of Art is an art museum of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. focusing on Asian art. The Freer and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery together form the National Museum of Asian Art in the United States. The Freer and ...

File:Dragons Ascending the Heavens - Hiryu Shoten (飛龍昇天).jpg, Dragons Ascending the Heavens (飛龍昇天); Meiji Era, c. 1887; Panel, ink on paper. w62.4 × h137.9 cm.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the list of largest art museums, 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 painting ...

References

*Baekeland, Frederick (1985). "Kanō Hōgai." Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan. Tokyo: Kodansha Ltd. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kano, Hogai Ukiyo-e 1828 births 1888 deaths Kanō school 19th-century Japanese artists 19th-century Japanese painters People from Shimonoseki Buddhist artists Artists from Yamaguchi Prefecture