Kano Motonobu · 1476–1559
Kano Motonobu
Kano Motonobu was a Muromachi-period painter and the second head of the Kano school. He brought Yamato-e techniques into Chinese-style painting and brought the Kano style to maturity, laying the foundation for the school's prosperity that lasted into the Edo period.
Kano Motonobu was born in Kyoto in 1476 (Bunmei 8). He was the son of Kano Masanobu, founder of the Kano school, and its second head. At ten he became an attendant to the shogun Ashikaga Yoshihisa, and he is said to have also served Ashikaga Yoshizumi. Later he was granted the rank of hogen and came to be known by the name Ko-Hogen.
Building on the Chinese-style (kanga) ink painting, he took in techniques of Yamato-e such as those of the Tosa school and established a Japanese style of wall painting suited to shoin-zukuri architecture. He is said to have organized the brush styles of Chinese painters and fixed three painting styles, shin, gyo, and so, for his pupils to learn.
Besides enjoying the patronage of the shogunate, the court, the Ishiyama Hongan-ji, and powerful townspeople, he also ran a kind of commercial workshop, selling painted fans to townspeople. He died in 1559 (Eiroku 2). Portraits of Zen Patriarchs is one of his works.
