Kano Eitoku

Kano Eitoku was born in Kyoto in 1543 (Tenbun 12), the eldest son of Kano Shoei. His grandfather was Motonobu, who established the Kano school. Eitoku is his Buddhist name; his personal name was Genshiro and his formal name Kuninobu. His sons include Kano Mitsunobu and Kano Takanobu. He is presumed to be the ten-year-old grandson whom Motonobu is recorded as having taken to an audience with the shogun Ashikaga Yoshiteru.

As head of the Kano school, he served Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi and was in charge of the wall paintings of Azuchi Castle, Osaka Castle, Jurakudai, and the Imperial Palace. Most of these were lost along with their buildings, and few surviving works are considered authentic.

Besides grand large-scale works such as the Cypress screens, he is said to have excelled at finely detailed paintings as well. In 1590 (Tensho 18) he fell ill while painting a dragon on the ceiling of the Dharma hall of Tofuku-ji, and died soon afterward at the age of 48 by traditional reckoning.