Kano School - Kanoha

The largest school of painting in the history of Japanese painting from the Muromachi period to the Meiji period. It built a strong painting organization based on a feudal hereditary system and strong family ties, and while meeting huge demand, it continued to reign over the early modern art world for 400 long years. Its history began in the late Muromachi period, when its founder, Kano Masanobu, succeeded Oguri Sotan and was appointed official painter for the Ashikaga Shogunate. Masanobu was a painter of the Chinese Song and Yuan Dynasties who studied Chinese Song and Yuan painting, but he also freely incorporated techniques from Japan's native Yamato-e style on occasion, aiming for a simple style of painting rooted in Japanese sensibilities. His son, Motonobu, took the fusion of Japanese and Chinese styles that Masanobu had started even further, creating a clear style of Shohekiga (pictures on sliding screens) that made use of the traditional decorativeness of Yamato-e painting, and taking a great first step towards the coming of modern painting. He also presided over a workshop with many disciples, and with his excellent political skills, he boldly survived the Warring States period, laying the foundation for the later development of the Kano school. Motonobu had many disciples, including Yusetsu, the son of Shōei, and Hideyori, the painter of the masterpiece "Takao View of Maple Trees Screen" (said to be either Motonobu's second son or his grandson Shinshō, but his biography is unknown. However, there is no doubt that he was active until the 1570s). Shōei, who succeeded the head of the family, left behind a series of calm, warm and exquisite works, but it was his grandson Eitoku who truly inherited Motonobu's style of painting. Eitoku dramatically developed the large-scale composition technique created by his grandfather, perfecting the so-called Momoyama style, which combines rich decorativeness with grandeur. This suited the tastes of such rulers as Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and at their request, he displayed his natural talent in the painting of the sliding screens of large-scale buildings representative of the time, such as the Azuchi Castle tower, Jurakudai, and Osaka Castle. After Eitoku's death, the Momoyama style that he had achieved was inherited by his disciple Sanraku and his eldest son Mitsunobu, but it was Sanraku who best conveyed Eitoku's grandiose style of painting, adding realism and decorativeness to it to establish his own unique style.

In response to this, Mitsunobu, who succeeded the head of the family, Japaneseized his father's style of painting, sympathizing with Yamato-e painting, and transformed it into something even more delicate and elegant. Then, amid the political instability following the Battle of Sekigahara (1600), Mitsunobu gradually built closer ties with the Tokugawa family, laying the groundwork for the Kano school's subsequent domination of the art world. Mitsunobu was close to his son Sadanobu and his younger brother Takanobu, but both died young, marking a major turning point for the Kano school. However, this crisis was overcome with cunning thanks to the efforts of Eitoku's younger brother Naganobu and Mitsunobu's most senior disciple Koi, and the growth of Takanobu's surviving children Morinobu (Tan'yu), Naonobu, and Yasunobu. Tan'yū in particular created a new style that was elegant and refined in simple compositions with a lot of white space, which suited the tastes of the shogunate rulers who aimed to establish a new order, and he received their overwhelming support. He was given a mansion outside the Kajibashi gate of Edo Castle and became the founder of the Kajibashi Kano family, but his younger brothers also established the Kobikicho family (Naonobu) and the Nakahashi family (the head Kano family) and each served as official painters for the shogunate. These three families were joined by the Hamacho family, which was established by Minenobu, the second son of Naonobu's son Tsunenobu, and the four families were known as oku-eshi (inner court painters), and their status as official painters for the shogunate was guaranteed for generations. Below these oku-eshi were omote-eshi and painters employed by each domain, and the Kano school maintained a stable influence throughout the Edo period. However, perhaps because they were content with this status, their artistic creativity gradually dried up. Ironically, many of the works that deserve attention are those of artists who were expelled from the school or distanced themselves from it, such as Kusumi Morikage and Hanabusa Iccho.

However, we must not forget that the Edo period Kano school also had a role as a negative example to many painters who once entered its school, only to start new art movements out of rebellion against it, and also functioned as an open-door painting educational institution. This potential significance of the Kano school became apparent in the two great masters, Kano Hogai and Hashimoto Gaho, in the early Meiji period, and would go on to make a major contribution to the modernization of Japanese painting movement led by Okakura Tenshin and others.

[Satoru Sakakibara]

"Takeda Tsuneo, Japanese Art 53: Motonobu, Eitoku, Tan'yu" (1979, Shogakukan)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

室町時代から明治に至る日本絵画史上最大の画派。封建的な世襲制と強固な同族的紐帯(ちゅうたい)を基本とした強力な作画機構を築き上げ、膨大な需要に応ずるとともに、400年の長きにわたって、近世画壇に君臨し続けた。その歴史は、室町後期、始祖狩野正信(まさのぶ)が小栗宗湛(おぐりそうたん)の後を継いで足利(あしかが)幕府の御用絵師に任ぜられたことに始まる。正信は中国の宋元画(そうげんが)に学んだ漢画系の画人であったが、時に応じてはわが国固有の大和絵(やまとえ)の技法をも自由に取り入れ、日本人の感性に根ざした平明な画風を志向した。その子元信は、正信に萌芽(ほうが)した和漢の融合をいっそう推し進め、大和絵の伝統的な装飾性を生かした明快な障壁画(しょうへきが)様式を創造、きたるべき近世絵画への偉大なる第一歩を踏み出した。さらに門弟多数を擁した工房を主宰、優れた政治的手腕によって戦国の世を大胆に生き抜き、後の狩野派発展の基礎を築いた。元信には、祐雪(ゆうせつ)、松栄(しょうえい)の子息や、名作『高雄観楓図屏風(たかおかんぷうずびょうぶ)』の画家秀頼(ひでより)（元信の次男とも、孫の真笑(しんしょう)ともいわれるが、その伝歴は不明。ただ1570年代まで活躍していたことは間違いない）などの門人があり、ことに宗家を継いだ松栄は、穏やかで温かみある佳品を残しているが、真に元信の画風を受け継いだのは孫の永徳であった。永徳は、祖父の創造した大画面構成法を飛躍的に展開させ、豊かな装飾性と壮大な気宇をあわせもった、いわゆる桃山様式を完成する。それは、織田信長、豊臣秀吉(とよとみひでよし)などの天下人の趣好に合致し、その用命によって、安土城(あづちじょう)天守閣をはじめ聚楽第(じゅらくだい)、大坂城など、当代を代表する大規模な殿舎の障壁画にその天賦の才腕を振るった。永徳の没後、彼の達成したこの桃山様式は、弟子の山楽(さんらく)や長男光信(みつのぶ)らに継承されたが、永徳の豪壮な画風をよく伝え、これに写実性と装飾性を付け加えて独自の様式を確立したのは山楽であった。

　これに対し宗家を継いだ光信は、大和絵への共感から父の画風を和様化し、いっそう繊細優美に変質させる。そして関ヶ原の戦い（1600）以降の政情不安のなかで、徐々に徳川家との関係を密にし、後代の狩野派による画壇支配への布石ともなった。光信の周辺には、子の貞信(さだのぶ)、弟の孝信(たかのぶ)がいたが、いずれも早世し、ここに狩野派は大きな転換期を迎える。しかしこの危機も、永徳の弟長信や光信の高弟興以(こうい)らの努力と、孝信の遺児守信（探幽(たんゆう)）、尚信(なおのぶ)、安信(やすのぶ)らの成長とによって、老獪(ろうかい)に乗り切る。ことに探幽は、余白の多い淡泊な構図のうちに瀟洒(しょうしゃ)で端正な新様式を創造、これは新秩序の確立を目ざした幕府支配者の趣味にも合致し、その絶大なる支持を得る。彼は、江戸城鍛冶橋(かじばし)門外に屋敷を与えられ、鍛冶橋狩野家の祖となるが、その弟たちも尚信は木挽町(こびきちょう)家を、安信は中橋家（狩野宗家）をそれぞれおこし、幕府の絵事御用を勤めた。この3家に、尚信の子常信(つねのぶ)の次子岑信(みねのぶ)が分家してたてた浜町(はまちょう)家を加えて、4家は奥絵師とよばれ、代々幕府の御用絵師としてその地位を保証された。そして、この奥絵師の下には表絵師、各藩のお抱え絵師などがあり、狩野派は江戸時代を通じて安定した勢力を保つこととなる。しかしそうした地位に安住したためか、しだいに芸術的創造力を枯渇させていく。そのなかで皮肉にも、久隅守景(くすみもりかげ)や英一蝶(はなぶさいっちょう)など破門されたり、一門から遠ざかっていった画家にみるべき作品が多い。

　もっともこれとは別に、江戸期の狩野派には、多くの画家が一度はその門に入り、それへの反発から新しい芸術運動をおこすといった反面教師的な存在意義や、広く門戸を開いた絵画教育機関としての機能があったこともまた忘れてはならない。そうした狩野派の潜在的意義が、明治初年における狩野芳崖(ほうがい)、橋本雅邦(がほう)の2巨匠のうちに顕在化し、これが岡倉天心らの日本画近代化運動に多大なる貢献をもたらすこととなる。

［榊原　悟］

『武田恒夫著『日本の美術53　元信・永徳・探幽』（1979・小学館）』

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