Kano Masanobu · 1434–1530
Kano Masanobu
Kano Masanobu (1434-1530) was a Muromachi-period painter regarded as the founder of the Kano school, which lasted about four hundred years. He served the Muromachi shogunate as an official painter, and Zhou Maoshu Admiring Lotuses is regarded as his representative work.
Kano Masanobu is a Muromachi-period painter said to have been born in 1434 (Eikyo 6) and to have died in 1530 (Kyoroku 3). He is regarded as the first head of the Kano school, which lasted about four hundred years from the Muromachi period to the Meiji era, and he served the shogunate as an official painter. There are several theories about where he came from.
Old records show that he was active as a painter in Kyoto by 1463 (Kansho 4). In 1483 (Bunmei 15) he was in charge of the wall paintings of the Higashiyama villa built by Ashikaga Yoshimasa, and in 1496 (Meio 5) he is recorded as having painted a portrait of Hino Tomiko.
Most of his surviving works are Chinese-style ink paintings, and Buddhist paintings and fan paintings also survive. Zhou Maoshu Admiring Lotuses takes a Chinese tale as its subject, and its plain, clear composition is regarded as the representative work that set the direction of the later Kano school.
