was a Japanese painter. He was the son 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 ...

by his second wife and led the Kajibashi branch 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 ...

after 1674. Stylistically, he had a Tosa-like approach (competing with the

Tosa school of Japanese painting was founded in the early Muromachi period (14th–15th centuries),,p.988 and was devoted to '' yamato-e'', paintings specializing in subject matter and techniques derived from ancient Japanese art, as opposed to schools influe ...

), but also departed slightly from the imitative style of Kanō school masters. This departure became a significant point of criticism in the rebellious anti-Kanō school movement of the late

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 ...

. Parallel anti-Kanō school artist

Hanabusa Itchō was a Japanese painter born in Osaka, calligrapher, and haiku poet. He originally trained in the Kanō style, under Kanō Yasunobu, but ultimately rejected that style and became a literati (''bunjin''). He was also known as Hishikawa Waō an ...

commended Tanshin for his "rare talent," derived from his ability to use nature as a model. Itchō asserted that Tanshin became a true artist by capturing the spirit of the bamboo to convey an idea.

References

The British Museum

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

ArtFinder
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kano Tanshin 1653 births 1718 deaths 17th-century Japanese painters 18th-century Japanese painters Kanō school