Kanō Naonobu (, 25 November 1607 – 7 May 1650) was a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

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 ...

of painting during the early

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

. He was the younger brother of

Kanō Tan'yū was a Japanese painter of the Kanō school. One of the foremost Kanō painters of the Tokugawa period, many of the best known Kanō works today are by Tan'yū. Biography His original given name was Morinobu; he was the eldest son of K ...

, with whom he completed a number of prominent commissions for the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

. His style differed somewhat from Tan'yū's in his bold use of

negative space In art and design, negative space or negative volume is the empty space around and between the subject(s) of an image. In graphic design this is known as white space. Negative space may be most evident when the space around a subject, not th ...

and his mastery of

ink wash painting Ink wash painting ( zh, t=水墨畫, s=水墨画, p=shuǐmòhuà) is a type of Chinese ink brush painting which uses Wash (visual arts), washes of black ink, such as that used in East Asian calligraphy, in different concentrations. It emerged duri ...

. Naonobu also used the art name Jitekisai ().

Life and career

Naonobu was born in

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

on the 6th day of the 10th month of the 12th year of

Keichō was a after '' Bunroku'' and before '' Genna''. This period spanned from October 1596 to July 1615. The reigning emperors were and . Change of era * 1596 : The era name was changed to ''Keichō'' to mark the passing of various natural disaste ...

(25 November 1607). He was the second son of the

painter

Kanō Takanobu Kanō Takanobu (, 1 December 1571 – 18 October 1618) was a Japanese painter of the Kanō school of painting during the Azuchi–Momoyama period (1573–). He was the father of Kanō Tan'yū, one of the most prominent painters of the sch ...

and the younger brother of

, who was to continue the line and become one of the foremost painters of the school. The

invited Naonobu to the administrative capital

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 ...

(modern Tokyo) in 1630, where he established himself at the Takekawa workshop affiliated with the Kanō school and became a , an exclusive position painting for the shogunate. He studied under his brother Tan'yū and a lesser known Kanō artist, Kanō Kō-i (d. 1625). The two completed a number of prominent commissions for the shogunate. Naonobu's skills differed somewhat from Tan'yū's, particularly taking after his mentor Kanō Kō-i and delving into

and his bold use of

. His work had a more Japanese feel deriving from nativist

Yamato-e is a style of Japanese painting inspired by Tang dynasty paintings and fully developed by the late Heian period. It is considered the classical Japanese style. From the Muromachi period (15th century), the term yamato-e has been used to disting ...

traditions. On gilt sliding doors and partitions he tended to suggest the form of the subject rather than delineate it. Works such as the ''Fujimi saigyō-zu byōbu'' screen show his interest in contrasts, depicted an enormous, barely-delineated

Mount Fuji is an active stratovolcano located on the Japanese island of Honshu, with a summit elevation of . It is the highest mountain in Japan, the second-highest volcano on any Asian island (after Mount Kerinci on the Indonesian island of Sumatra), a ...

against a background of mostly negative space with a tiny seated figure gazing up at it. In his personal life Naonobu had the nickname Shume (). He enjoyed trips to Kyoto and visiting the artist and aristocrat Kobori Masakazu. Naonobu went missing on the 7th day of the 4th month of the 3rd year of

Keian was a after '' Shōhō'' and before '' Jōō.'' This period spanned the years from February 1648 through September 1652. The reigning emperor was .Titsingh, Isaac. (1834) ''Annales des empereurs du japon'', p. 412./ref> Change of era * 1648 ...

(7 May 1650). He was said to have died of illness, though rumours circulated that he had drowned while fishing or had set off for China. Kanō Naonobu (17th century) Fushimi saigyoku-zu byōbu.jpg, ''Fujimi saigyō-zu byōbu'', ink on paper, 155.8 cm × 363.4 cm Kanō Naonobu (17th century) The Four Sages of Mount Shang.jpg, One of a pair of ''

byōbu are Japanese folding screens made from several joined panels, bearing decorative painting and calligraphy, used to separate interiors and enclose private spaces, among other uses. History are originated in Han dynasty China and are tho ...

'' depicting The Four Sages of Mount Shang (商山四皓).

References

Works cited

* *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kano, Michinobu 1607 births 1650 deaths 17th-century Japanese painters Kanō school