was a dōbōshū (artist and art connoisseur for the shogunate) in the service of the

Ashikaga shogunate The , also known as the , was the feudal military government of Japan during the Muromachi period from 1336 to 1573.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Muromachi-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 669. The Ashikaga shogunate was establi ...

, an esteemed suiboku (monochrome ink) painter,

renga ''Renga'' (, ''linked verse'') is a genre of Japanese collaborative poetry in which alternating stanzas, or ''ku (''句), of 5-7-5 and 7-7 mora (sound units, not to be confused with syllables) per line are linked in succession by multiple poets. ...

(linked verse) poet and tate-bana flower artist. He was especially closely involved with the 6th shōgun

Ashikaga Yoshinori was the sixth ''shōgun'' of the Ashikaga shogunate who reigned from 1429 to 1441 during the Muromachi period of Japan. Yoshinori was the son of the third ''shōgun'' Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). His childhood name was Harutor ...

and the 8th shōgun

Ashikaga Yoshimasa Ashikaga (足利) may refer to: * Ashikaga clan (足利氏 ''Ashikaga-shi''), a Japanese samurai clan descended from the Minamoto clan; and that formed the basis of the eponymous shogunate ** Ashikaga shogunate (足利幕府 ''Ashikaga bakufu''), a ...

. Nōami served the Ashikaga shogunate as the curator of the shogunate's collection of artworks known as the ‘ Higashiyama Gomotsu’. An astute art connoisseur, Nōami collected and evaluated the imported artworks for the shogunate and developed elaborate guidelines for the display of artworks in

shoin is a type of audience hall in Japanese architecture that was developed during the Muromachi period. The term originally meant a study and a place for lectures on the sūtra within a temple, but later it came to mean just a drawing room or st ...

rooms such as the mannerisms for displaying hanging scrolls, ornamenting chigai-dana (staggered shelf alcove), displaying flowers and vases on alcoves, and displaying pieces on

writing desks. These guidelines are captured in the "Reference for the Display of Objects of Beauty" (Kundaikan Sō Chōki 君台観左右帳記) available from th
National Diet Library Digital Collections
He served as an advisor in the ways of Japanese tea ceremony,

kōdō is the art of appreciating Japanese incense, and involves using incense within a structure of codified conduct. ''Kōdō'' includes all aspects of the incense process, from the , to activities such as the incense-comparing games ''kumikō'' () ...

(incense) and a variety of other elements related to the arts. Nōami had a meaningful exchange with Murata Shukō. It is said that Nōami taught Shukō tate-bana flower arrangement and the appraisal of Chinese artworks while Shukō taught Nōami the daisu style of chanoyu (tea ritual). An accomplished artist in his own right, Nōami was a student of Shūbun, and painted primarily landscapes, in the '' suiboku'' (monochrome ink) style. Together with his son Geiami and grandson

Sōami was a Japanese painter and landscape artist. Sōami was the grandson and son of the painters and art connoisseurs Nōami and Geiami, respectively. He was in the service of the Ashikaga shogunate who is claimed to have designed the rock garden of ...

, the three are known as the ''San-ami'' or "Three Ami's" and are among the most celebrated landscape painters in the Japanese tradition. Nōami is also known by his birth name of Nakao Shinnō 中尾真能, and by his buddhist name Shunōsai 春鷗斎.

Selected works

Image:Lotus by Noami (Masaki Art Museum).jpg, ''Lotus'',

Masaki Art Museum is an art museum in Tadaoka, Osaka Prefecture, Japan, that opened in 1968. The collection, built up by , comprises some thirteen hundred works, including three National Treasures and twelve Important Cultural Properties. Gallery See also ...

Image:Nōami Kannon.jpg, ''Kannon''

References

*Frederic, Louis (2002). "Japan Encyclopedia." Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. *Sadō Daijiten, Kadogawa Shoten, 茶道大辞典、角川書店、2002, (Japanese) *Chanoyu Jinbutsu Jiten, Sekaibunka-sha, 2011, (Japanese) 1397 births 1471 deaths Japanese painters Chadō {{japan-painter-stub