Kanō School - Height of Influence and Decline

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 the Shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi, 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. When Sanraku had no son he married Kano Sansetsu (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 shogun), 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 reduce, 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 Kobikcho, 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 shogun at the age of 10, and receiving a good official appointment in 1617. He was Eitoku's grandson through his second son Kanō Takanobu (1572–1618), also a significant painter; Tan'yū's brother Yasinobu 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 mostly continued to work 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 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 Shōsenin, who died in 1880, was a descendant of the main line of the family. One late follower of the school was Kanō Kazunobu (1816–1853), who adopted the name as a sign of his respect, and painted a series of large scrolls of the 500 Arhats which has recently received a revival of attention after being hidden away since World War II.