Kano Art

The Kano-ha was a "school" of painting which lasted for over 400 years, from
around the mid-15th century to the late 19th century. The school was founded
by Kano Masanobu, who began painting in Kyoto around the middle of the 15th
century, and developed into an organized group of painters during the time
of his heir Motonobu. The school was greatly altered by the establishment of
the military government at the beginning of the Edo period (1615-1868), and
its work had an overwhelming influence on the world of modern artists, but
it disappeared with the fall of the Edo Shogunate.

The founder of the school Kano Masanobu became the master painter of the
Shogun's family and was retained by Ashikaga Yoshimasa and Yoshihisa. At
that time the Kano school was a rather small group of artists. It was during
the time of his son Motonobu (1477-1559) that the school grew rapidly into a
large organization of many painters. In response to the many demands from
the Shogun's family, various local daimyo rulers, and large temples, the
Kano school produced the wall-and-door paintings and screens, as well as
"origin" scrolls, fans, and votive tablets that accompanied the construction
of mansions, fortresses, and pagodas, etc. This exhibit consists mainly of
works showing the extent of Masanobu's style.