Kano Eino - Birds and Flowers of Spring and Summer - Google Art Project

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 The is an era of 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 feudal society at risk of colonization ...

which began in 1868, by which time the school had divided into many different branches. The Kanō family itself produced a string of major artists over several generations, to which large numbers of unrelated artists trained in workshops of the school can be added. Some artists married into the family and changed their names, and others were adopted. According to the historian of Japanese art Robert Treat Paine, "another family which in direct blood line produced so many men of genius ... would be hard to find". The school began by reflecting a renewed influence from

Chinese painting Chinese painting () is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world. Painting in the traditional style is known today in Chinese as ''guó huà'' (), meaning "national painting" or "native painting", as opposed to Western style ...

, but developed a brightly coloured and firmly outlined style for large panels decorating the castles of the nobility which reflected distinctively Japanese traditions, while continuing to produce monochrome brush paintings in Chinese styles. It was supported by the shogunate, effectively representing an official style of art, which "in the 18th century almost monopolized the teaching of painting". It drew on the Chinese tradition of literati painting by scholar-bureaucrats, but the Kanō painters were firmly professional artists, very generously paid if successful, who received a formal workshop training in the family workshop, in a similar way to European painters of the Renaissance or Baroque. They worked mainly for the nobility, ''

shōgun , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamakur ...

s'' and emperors, covering a wide range of styles, subjects and formats. Initially innovative, and largely responsible for the new types of painting of the

Azuchi–Momoyama period The was the final phase of the in Japanese history from 1568 to 1600. After the outbreak of the Ōnin War in 1467, the power of the Ashikaga Shogunate effectively collapsed, marking the start of the chaotic Sengoku period. In 1568, Oda Nobu ...

(1573–1614), from the 17th century the artists of the school became increasingly conservative and academic in their approach. Tigres et dragons par Kanō Sanraku

Early period

The school was founded by the very long-lived

Kanō Masanobu was a Japanese painter. He was the chief painter of the Ashikaga shogunate and is generally considered the founder of the Kanō school of painting. Kano Masanobu specialized in Zen paintings as well as elaborate paintings of Buddhist deities and ...

(1434–1530), who was the son of Kagenobu, a

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of History of Japan#Medieval Japan (1185–1573/1600), medieval and Edo period, early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retai ...

and amateur painter. Masanobu was a contemporary of Sesshū (1420–1506), a leader of the revival of Chinese influence, who had actually visited China in mid-career, in around 1467. Sesshū may have been a student of Shūbun, recorded from about 1414 (as an apprentice) and 1465, another key figure in the revival of Chinese idealist traditions in Japanese painting. Masanobu began his career in Shūbun's style, and works are recorded between 1463 and 1493. He was appointed court artist to the Muromachi government, and his works evidently included landscape ink wash paintings in a Chinese style, as well as figure paintings and birds and flowers. Few works certainly from his hand survive; they include a large screen with a crane in a snowy landscape in the '' Shinju-an'', a sub-temple of '' Daitoku-ji''. Masanobu's Chinese-style '' Zhou Maoshu Appreciating Lotuses'' in the Kyushu National Museum (illustrated left) is a National Treasure of Japan. Masanobu trained his sons

Kanō Motonobu was a Japanese painter and calligrapher. He was a member of the Kanō school of painting. Through his political connections, patronage, organization, and influence he was able to make the Kanō school into what it is today. The system was respon ...

(1476–1559) and the younger Yukinobu (or Utanosuke). Motonobu is usually credited with establishing the school's distinctive technique and style, or rather different styles, which brought a firmer line and stronger outlines to paintings using Chinese conventions. Less interest was taken in subtle effects of atmospheric recession that in the Chinese models, and elements in the composition tend to be placed at the front of the picture space, often achieving decorative effects in a distinctively Japanese way. Motonobu married the daughter of Tosa Mitsunobu, the head of the Tosa school, which continued the classic Japanese

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 ...

style of largely narrative and religious subjects, and Kanō paintings subsequently also included more traditional Japanese subjects typical of that school.

Castle decoration

The school was instrumental in developing new forms of painting for decorating the new styles of castles of the new families of ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominall ...

s'' (feudal lords) that emerged in the struggles of the

of civil war that ended with the establishment of the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in ...

in 1603. The new lords had risen to power by military skill, and mostly lacked immersion in the sophisticated traditions of Japanese culture long cultivated in Buddhist monasteries and the Imperial court. Bold and vigorous styles using bright colour on a

gold ground Gold ground (both a noun and adjective) or gold-ground (adjective) is a term in art history for a style of images with all or most of the background in a solid gold colour. Historically, real gold leaf has normally been used, giving a luxurious ...

(background in

gold leaf Gold leaf is gold that has been hammered into thin sheets (usually around 0.1 µm thick) by goldbeating and is often used for gilding. Gold leaf is available in a wide variety of karats and shades. The most commonly used gold is 22-karat ...

or paint) appealed to the taste of these patrons, and were applied to large folding screens (''

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 dynast ...

'') and sets of sliding doors ('' fusuma''). In the grandest rooms most of the walls were painted, although interrupted by wooden beams, with some designs continuing regardless of these. Very many examples in castles have been lost to fires, whether accidental or caused in war, but others were painted for monasteries, or given to them from castles, which if they survived World War II bombing have had a better chance of survival. Common subjects were landscapes, often as a background for animals and dragons, or birds, trees or flowers, or compositions with a few large figures, but crowded panoramic scenes from a high viewpoint were also painted. The animals and plants shown often had moral or perhaps political significance that is not always obvious today; the Chinese-style ink wash scroll by Kanō Eitoku of '' Chao Fu and his Ox'', illustrated in the gallery below, illustrates a Chinese legend and contains a "Confucian moral hichpoints to the dangers inherent in political position", a very topical message for Japan in the period following the disruptive civil wars caused by naked political ambition. Some of the most famous examples of castle decoration can be found at the Nijō Castle 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 ...

. In 1588 the warlord

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and '' daimyō'' ( feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the C ...

is said to have assembled a walkway between 100 painted screens as the approach to a flower party. That, unlike scrolls, sliding doors were by convention not signed, and screens only rarely, considerably complicates the business of attributing works to painters who were able to paint in several styles. At the same time the school continued to paint monochrome ink-on-silk landscapes for hanging scrolls in the Chinese tradition, as well as other types of subjects such as portraits. The types of scrolls were both vertical for hanging, with a backing usually of thick woven silk, the traditional Chinese format which became the most common in Japan in this period ('' kakemono'' in Japanese), and in the long horizontal handscroll ('' emakimono'') format as used for books. Many screens and doors were also painted in monochrome, especially for monasteries, and scrolls were also painted in full colour. Kanō ink painters composed very flat pictures but they balanced impeccably detailed realistic depictions of animals and other subjects in the foreground with abstract, often entirely blank, clouds and other background elements. The use of negative space to indicate distance, and to imply mist, clouds, sky or sea is drawn from traditional Chinese modes and is used beautifully by the Kanō artists. Bold brush strokes and thus bold images are obtained in what is often a very subtle and soft medium. These expertly painted monochrome ink paintings contrast with the almost gaudy but no less beautiful gold-on-paper forms these artists created for walls and screens.

Cypress screen by Eitoku

This eight panel screen attributed to Eitoku, around 1590, shows the vigour of the new Momoyama castle style, which he is probably mainly responsible for developing. It is a National Treasure of Japan in the

Tokyo National Museum The or TNM is an art museum in Ueno Park in the Taitō ward of Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the four museums operated by the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage ( :ja:国立文化財機構), is considered the oldest national museum in Japa ...

, and described by Paine as "typical for hurried sweep of composition, for pure nature design, and for strength of individual brush stroke. ... Golden cloud-like areas representing mist are placed arbitrarily in the background, and emphasize the decorative magnitude of what is otherwise the powerful drawing of giant tree forms". The screen is unusually large and there are noticeable discontinuities in the composition at the breaks between (counting from the left) panels 2 and 3, 4 and 5, 6 and 7. These reflect the original format as a set of four sliding doors, which can be deduced from this and the covered-over recesses for the door-pulls. The discontinuities would be much less obvious when the screen was standing in a zig-zag pattern, as would normally have been the case. The screen uses the "floating-cloud" convention of much older

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 ...

Japanese art, where areas the artist chooses not to represent are hidden beneath solid colour (here gold) representing mist. Designs of this type, dominated by a single massive tree, became a common composition in the school, and this one can be compared to the similar screen of a plum tree by Sanretsu from a few decades later (illustrated below), which shows a more restrained version of the first bold Momoyama style.

Height of influence and decline

Kanō Eitoku (1543–1590), a grandson of Motonobu and probably his pupil, was the most important painter of this generation, and is believed to have been the first to use a gold-leaf background in large paintings. He appears to have been the main figure in developing the new castle style, but while his importance is fairly clear there are few if any certain attributions to him, especially to his hand alone; in the larger works attributed to him he probably worked together with one of more other artists of the school. Despite having two painter sons, at the suggestion (if not the order) of

, Eitoku adopted Kanō Sanraku (1561–1635), who married his daughter and succeeded him as head of the school. Sanraku's works (two illustrated here) at their best combine the forceful quality of Momoyama work with the tranquil depiction of nature and more refined use of colour typical of the

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 character ...

. When Sanraku had no son he married

Kanō Sansetsu was a Japanese painter also known as Kanō Heishiro. He was born in Hizen Province, Kyūshū, and died in Kyoto. Biography Sansetsu was apprenticed to Kanō Sanraku, married his daughter, and was adopted by him after the death of Sanraku's el ...

(1589–1651) to his daughter and adopted him. Sansetsu and his school remained in Kyoto when most Kanō artists moved to Edo (often after a summons from the ''shōgun''), and he continued to adhere to the brightly coloured style of the Momoyama period. His son Einō painted in the same style, but is better known for a biographical history of Japanese painting, which gave the Kanō school pride of place. The range of forms, styles and subjects that were established in the early 17th century continued to be developed and refined without major innovation for the next two centuries, and although the Kanō school was the most successful in Japan, the distinctions between the work of it and other schools tended to diminish, as all the schools worked in a range of styles and formats, making the attribution of unsigned works often unclear. The Kanō school split into different branches in Kyoto and the new capital of Edo, which had three for much of this period: the Kajibashi, Nakabashi and Kobikicho, named after their locations in Edo. The last of the "three famous brushes" of the school, with Motonobu and Eitoku, was Kanō Tan'yū (originally named Morinobu, 1602–1674), who was recognised as an outstanding talent as a child, attending an audience with the ''shōgun'' at the age of 10, and receiving a good official appointment in 1617. He was Eitoku's grandson through his second son

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 ...

(1572–1618), also a significant painter; Tan'yū's brother Yasunobu was adopted into the main line of the family. Tan'yū headed the Kajibashi branch of the school in Edo and painted in many castles and the Imperial palace, in a less bold but extremely elegant style, which however tended to become stiff and academic in the hands of less-talented imitators. The best Kanō artists continued to work mostly for the nobility, with increasingly stultified versions of the style and subject-matter already established, but other Kanō-trained artists worked for the new urban merchant class, and in due course moved into the new form of the

ukiyo-e Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk ...

print. Hiroshige is among the ukiyo-e artists whose work shows influence from the Kanō school. Despite the loss of official patronage with the Meiji period, artists continued to work in the Kanō style until the early 20th century. Kanō Shōsen'in, who died in 1880, was a descendant of the main line of the family. One late follower of the school was

Kanō Kazunobu Kanō Kazunobu (, 1816 – November 3, 1863) was a Japanese painter of the Kanō school. Kazunobu produced mainly Buddhist paintings and he is best known for his highly acclaimed ''Five Hundred Arhats''. Some of his other surviving works ...

(1816–1853), who adopted the name as a sign of his respect, and painted a series of large scrolls of the ''500

Arhat In Buddhism, an ''arhat'' (Sanskrit: अर्हत्) or ''arahant'' (Pali: अरहन्त्, 𑀅𑀭𑀳𑀦𑁆𑀢𑁆) is one who has gained insight into the true nature of existence and has achieved '' Nirvana'' and liberated ...

s'' which has recently received a revival of attention after being hidden away since World War II.

National Treasures

A number of paintings by the schools that are still in Japan are included in the official List of National Treasures of Japan (paintings). From the 15th century

come the Chinese-style hanging scroll ''Zhou Maoshu Appreciating Lotuses'' by

(illustrated above), and a six-section screen by Kanō Hideyori of ''Maple Viewers'', an early Kanō example of Yamato-e subject matter. From the Momoyama period there is a set of room decorations on walls, doors and screens by Kanō Eitoku and his father Shōei, in the Jukō-in (abbot's lodging) at the Daitoku-ji monastery in Kyoto; this includes the doors with ''Birds and flowers of the four seasons'' illustrated here. Also by Eitoku is the screen with a Cypress tree in the

, discussed and illustrated above, and a pair of six panel screens showing crowded panoramic views of ''Scenes in and around the capital'' in a museum in Yonezawa, Yamagata. By

Kanō Naganobu Kanō Naganobu (, 1577 – 26 December 1654) was a Japanese painter of the Kanō school. Naganobu was the youngest brother of the Kanō school's head, Kanō Eitoku. Naganobu completed numerous commissions for the court in Kyoto, includin ...

there is a pair of screens (less two sections lost in an earthquake in 1923) showing relatively large figures ''Merry-making under aronia blossoms'', also in the Tokyo National Museum. Other artists with works on the list, for example

Hasegawa Tōhaku was a Japanese painter and founder of the Hasegawa school. He is considered one of the great painters of the Azuchi–Momoyama period (1573-1603), and he is best known for his folding screens, such as '' Pine Trees'' and ''Pine Tree and Fl ...

(16th century) and

Maruyama Ōkyo , born Maruyama Masataka, was a Japanese artist active in the late 18th century. He moved to Kyoto, during which he studied artworks from Chinese, Japanese and Western sources. A personal style of Western naturalism mixed with Eastern d ...

(19th century), were trained by the school or otherwise influenced by it. Many other works by the school have received the lower designation of Important Cultural Properties of Japan.

Artists

The following list is an incomplete group of major figures of their day, mostly from the Kanō family itself; there were many other artists named Kanō who retained links with the various family workshops, and still more who trained in one of these before continuing their careers independently: *

(1434–1530): founder of the Kanō school *

(1476–1559): son of Masanobu * Kanō Soshu (1551–1601) * Kanō Eitoku (1543–1590) * Kanō Hideyori (d. 1557) * Kanō Dōmi (1568–1600) * Kanō Mitsunobu (d. 1608) * Kanō Sanraku (1559–1635) *

Kanō Naizen was a part of the Japanese family of painters, the Kanō school. He was the middle son of school's head Kanō Eitoku, younger brother to the Kano school heir Kanō Mitsunobu, older brother to Kanō Takanobu, and adopted brother to the famed K ...

(1570–1616) *

(1589–1651): the leader of the school, an offshoot of the Kanō school, based in

* Kanō Tan'yū (1602–1674) * Kanō Naonobu (1607–1650) * Kanō Yasunobu (1643–1682) * Kanō Einō (1631–1697) * Kanō Tsunenobu (1636–1713) *

Kiyohara Yukinobu Kiyohara Yukinobu (1643–1682) was a Japanese painter and one of the foremost women identified with the Kanō school. Her father Kusumi Morikage was also a painter and her mother Kuniko was the niece of his longtime teacher and patron Kanō Tan' ...

(1643–1682), niece of Kanō Tan'yū * Kanō Tanshin (1653–1718) * Kanō Chikanobu * Kanō-ryu* (1660–1728) *

Kanō Michinobu Kanō Michinobu (, 20 December 1730 – 24 September 1790) was a Japanese painter of the Kanō school of painting. He was the first appointed "inner painter" to the '' shōgun'', to whom he remained close. Michinobu also used the art names ...

(1730–1790) * Kanō Shōsen'in (1823–1880) * Kanō Hōgai (1828–1888) * Hashimoto Gahō (1835–1908)

The Kanō family

The Kanō family of painters was founded by

(1434–1530). Through his father, Kanō Kagenobu, Masanobu is said to be a descendant of

Kanō Muneshige Kanō Muneshige (狩野宗茂) was a Japanese samurai of the Kamakura period. He was the son of Kudō Shigemitsu, the founder of the Kanō clan. He is said to be an ancestor of Kanō Masanobu, the founder of the Kanō school of painting. L ...

, a

of the

Kamakura period The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first '' shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the Genpei War, which saw the struggle bet ...

of the Kanō clan. Through this lineage, the Kanō family would descend from the

Fujiwara clan was a powerful family of imperial regents in Japan, descending from the Nakatomi clan and, as legend held, through them their ancestral god Ame-no-Koyane. The Fujiwara prospered since the ancient times and dominated the imperial court until ...

through the Kudō clan. The following list is of biological members of the Kanō family and its branches.

From Masanobu until Tan'yū

(1434–1530) *

(1476–1559): son of Masanobu * Kanō Shōei (1519–1592): son of Motonobu * Kanō Munenobu: son of Motonobu * Kanō Hideyori: son of Motonobu * Kanō Eitoku (1543–1590): son of Shōei * Kanō Sōshū: son of Shōei *

(1577–1654): son of Shōei *

(1570–1616): son of Shōei * Kanō Jinnojō: son of Sōshū * Kanō Mitsunobu (1565–1608): son of Eitoku *

(1571–1618): son of Eitoku * Kaihō Yūshō (1533–1615): son of Eitoku * Kanō Sanraku (1559–1635): son of Eitoku *

Kanō Sadanobu Kanō Sadanobu (, 22 May 1597 – 12 November 1623) was a Japanese painter of the Kanō school. He was the son of the Kanō Mitsunobu, who lost a great deal of the main Kanō school's patronage and prestige. Sadanobu was Mitsunobu's only son and ...

(1597–1623): son of Mitsunobu * Kanō Kōkei: son of Mitsunobu * Kanō Tan'yū (1602–1674): son of Takanobu * Kanō Naonobu (1607–1650): son of Takanobu * Kanō Yasunobu (1614–1685): son of Takanobu

The Kobikicho House (Naonobu's side)

* Kanō Naonobu (1607–1650)

The Nakabashi House (Hideyori's side)

* Kanō Hideyori

Gallery

File:Kano Eitoku 010.jpg, Detail of ''The Four Accomplishments'', by Kanō Eitoku. One of six folding screens: ink on paper. Shows people playing go. File:Namban-11.jpg, Screen detail depicting arrival of a Western ship, attributed to

(1570–1616). File:'View of Kyoto', fan painting by Kano Motohide, Japanese late 16th century, Honolulu Academy of Arts (2).jpg, ''View of

'', fan painting by Kanō Motohide, late 16th century, one of a set of 10 File:'Wheat, Poppies, and Bamboo' by Kano Shigenobu.jpg, Screen of ''Wheat, Poppies, and Bamboo'' by Kanō Shigenobu File:Sanjūrokkasen-gaku - 5 - Kanō Tan’yū - Chūnagon Yakamochi.jpg, Framed imaginary portrait of the 8th century poet

Ōtomo no Yakamochi was a Japanese statesman and '' waka'' poet in the Nara period. He was one of the ''Man'yō no Go-taika,'' the five great poets of his time, and was part of Fujiwara no Kintō's . Ōtomo was a member of the prestigious Ōtomo clan. Like his g ...

from a series of the

Thirty-six Poetry Immortals The are a group of Japanese poets of the Asuka, Nara, and Heian periods selected by Fujiwara no Kintō as exemplars of Japanese poetic ability. The oldest surviving collection of the 36 poets' works is '' Nishi Honganji Sanju-rokunin Kash ...

, Kanō Tan'yū, 1648 Kano Eitoku 009

Notes

References

*"Masters of Mercy"
Smithsonian, Sackler Gallery. Online exhibition ''Masters of Mercy''
*Paine, Robert Treat, in: Paine, R. T. & Soper A, ''The Art and Architecture of Japan'', Pelican History of Art, 3rd ed 1981, Penguin (now Yale History of Art), *Watson, William, ''The Great Japan Exhibition: Art of the Edo Period 1600–1868'', 1981,

Royal Academy of Arts The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purp ...

/Weidenfeld & Nicolson

External links

Department of Asian Art. "The Kano School of Painting". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003Momoyama, Japanese Art in the Age of Grandeur
an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on the Kanō school
Bridge of dreams: the Mary Griggs Burke collection of Japanese art
a catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on this school (see index) {{DEFAULTSORT:Kano school Schools of Japanese art