was a Japanese

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

. He was the chief painter of the Ashikaga shogunate and is generally considered the founder 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. Kano Masanobu specialized in

Zen Zen (; from Chinese: ''Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka phil ...

paintings as well as elaborate paintings of

Buddhist deities Buddhism includes a wide array of divine beings that are venerated in various ritual and popular contexts. Initially they included mainly Indian figures such as devas, asuras and yakshas, but later came to include other Asian spirits and loc ...

and

Bodhisattvas In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a person who has attained, or is striving towards, ''Enlightenment in Buddhism, bodhi'' ('awakening', 'enlightenment') or Buddhahood. Often, the term specifically refers to a person who forgoes or delays personal n ...

Life and work

Masanobu's father had been a

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

and amateur artist named Kanō Kagenobu. Masanobu would start the line of professional artists of the Kanō family. As an artist, Masanobu, like many in his day, was influenced by the priest-painter

Tenshō Shūbun was a Japanese Zen Buddhist monk and painter of the Muromachi period.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Shūbun''" in Biography Shūbun was born in the late 14th century in Ōmi Province and became a professional painter around 1403. He ...

, and some sources indicate that he may have received the bulk of his artistic education under Shūbun. Masanobu worked in the ''

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

'' ink and wash style, derived 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 , meaning "national painting" or "native painting", as opposed to Western styles of art which b ...

, but brought a Japanese touch to the style with more defined forms. Very few of his works survive with ''Zhou Maoshu Appreciating Lotuses'' being an exception. Kanō Masanobu would serve the Ashikaga shogunate as an official painter (御用絵師, ''goyō eshi''), succeeding to the post. Although Masanobu's father was a samurai, the family was provincial and therefore he did not hold a court rank. Instead of a rank, he had gained his position in service due to a mix of both achievement and social capital. This led to some criticism as aristocrat Shūzan Tōki expressed disdain towards Masanobu stating he was not a "born court painter." File:Ashikaga Yoshihisa.jpg,

Shogun , officially , was the title of the military aristocracy, rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor of Japan, Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, exc ...

Ashikaga Yoshihisa was the 9th ''shōgun'' of the Ashikaga shogunate who reigned from 1473 to 1489 during the Muromachi period of Japan.Ackroyd, Joyce. (1982) ''Lessons from History: The Tokushi Yoron'', p. 331. Yoshihisa was the son of the eighth ''shōgun'' Ash ...

File:Landscape by Kano Masanobu (Kyushu National Museum).jpg, Landscape, Kyushu National Museum File:Landscape by Kano Masanobu (Kyushu National Museum)2.jpg, Landscape, Kyushu National Museum

Legacy

The Kanō school would maintain its dominance as the dominant painting style for over 400 years from Masanobu's time up through the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

(1868). However, the school's style is neither purely nor mainly Masanobu's legacy, as the distinct Kanō style is linked more to Masanobu's son

Kanō Motonobu was a Japanese people, Japanese Japanese painting, painter and Japanese calligraphy, 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 ...

, who took over as head of the school after Masanobu.

Genealogy

Masanobu is said to be a descendant of Kanō Muneshige, a

of the

Kamakura period The is a period of History of Japan, Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the G ...

of the Kanō clan, through his father, Kanō Kagenobu. Through this lineage, Masanobu would descend from the

Fujiwara clan The 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 ancient times and dominated the imperial court until th ...

through the Kudō clan.

References

External links

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 Kanō Masanobu (see index) {{DEFAULTSORT:Kano, Masanobu 1430s births 1530s deaths 15th-century Japanese painters 16th-century Japanese painters Buddhist artists History of art in Japan Kanō school

Life and work

Legacy

Genealogy

See also

References

External links