Hanging scroll; ink on paper Worn Kano-school seal mark at lower left With a fitted paulownia-wood storage box Established by Kano Masanobu (1434–1530), the Kano school or academy exercised a...
Hanging scroll; ink on paper Worn Kano-school seal mark at lower left With a fitted paulownia-wood storage box
Established by Kano Masanobu (1434–1530), the Kano school or academy exercised a pervasive influence on the world of Japanese painting for nearly four centuries. By the end of the Edo period (1615–1868) in addition to major branches and lineages in both Kyoto and Edo (present-day Tokyo), its painters also operated in dozens of regional castle towns.
Masanobu himself painted in the style of monochrome ink painting favored by Zen temples, where imported scrolls of patriarchs and landscapes by Chinese priests and monks, executed in powerful brushstrokes often contrasted with atmospheric washes, had been treasured and copied by Japanese artists from as early as the fourteenth century. The majority of the leading military figures of his day were also followers of Zen, providing the early Kano masters with a steady source of commissions, initially for scroll paintings but later for large-scale compositions in sliding-door or screen format, many of which also included rich mineral pigments and lavish applications of gold leaf.
In 1600 the Kano headquarters moved from Kyoto to Edo, where Kano Tan’yū (1602–1674) led a revival of the earlier house style, with a renewed emphasis on the expressive power of uncolored ink. The present large and noble scroll, featuring tiny figures—a scholarly recluse and his attendant welcoming guests who have just arrived by boat to his secluded but well-appointed retreat—dwarfed by mountains that recede into the distance, belongs within that revered tradition, a Japanese interpretation of the same enduring strand of East Asian visual culture.
For a comparable tall landscape scroll in Kano style in Tokyo National Museum (inv. no. A-12078), see http://webarchives.tnm.jp/imgsearch/show/C0020627.