Sanjūrokkasen-gaku - 24 - Kanō Naonobu - Taira no Kanemori

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 period which began in 1868, by which time the school had divided into many di ...

of painting during the early

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

. He was the younger brother of

Kanō Tan'yū was a Japanese painter of the Kanō school. One of the foremost Kanō painters, 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 Kanō Takanobu and grandson ...

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

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

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

negative space Negative space, in art, is the empty space around and between the subject(s) of an image. Negative space may be most evident when the space around a subject, not the subject itself, forms an interesting or artistically relevant shape, and su ...

and his mastery of

ink wash painting Ink wash painting ( zh, t=水墨畫, s=水墨画, p=shuǐmòhuà; ja, 水墨画, translit=suiboku-ga or ja, 墨絵, translit=sumi-e; ko, 수묵화, translit=sumukhwa) is a type of Chinese ink brush painting which uses black ink, such as tha ...

. Naonobu also used the art name Jitekisai ().

Life and career

Naonobu was born in

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

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 disasters ...

(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 ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

(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 distingui ...

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 , or Fugaku, located on the island of Honshū, is the highest mountain in Japan, with a summit elevation of . It is the second-highest volcano located on an island in Asia (after Mount Kerinci on the island of Sumatra), and seventh-highest p ...

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 Kobori (written: 小堀) is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: *, Japanese artist and aristocrat *, Japanese tennis player *, Japanese ice hockey player *, Japanese swimmer *, Japanese swimmer *, Japanese voice actress *, ...

. Naonobu went missing on the 7th day of the 4th month of the 3rd year of

Keian : ''For the Zen Buddhist monk, see Keian Genju (1427–1508).'' was a after ''Shoho, Shōhō'' and before ''Jōō (Edo period), Jōō.'' This period spanned the years from February 1648 through September 1652. The reigning emperor was .Titsingh, ...

(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 thought to have originated in Han dynasty C ...

'' 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