page_title: Kanō school
section_title: National Treasures
hierarchical_section_title: Kanō school / National Treasures
caption_attribution_description: English: Birds and flowers of the four seasons (紙本墨画花鳥図, shihon bokuga kachōzu), part of the Paintings on room partitions in the abbot's quarters (hōjō) (方丈障壁画, hōjō shōhekiga) of Jukō-in (聚光院) of Daitoku-ji (大徳寺), Kyoto, Japan. Ink on paper. This picture shows four of 16 panels on fusuma (sliding doors) in the in the ritual room (室中). The paintings have been designated as National Treasure of Japan in the category paintings.
context_page_description: The Kanō school is one of the most famous schools of Japanese painting. The Kanō school of painting was the dominant style of painting from the late 15th century until the Meiji period which began in 1868, by which time the school had divided into many different branches. The Kanō family itself produced a string of major artists over several generations, to which large numbers of unrelated artists trained in workshops of the school can be added. Some artists married into the family and changed their names, and others were adopted. According to the historian of Japanese art Robert Treat Paine, "another family which in direct blood line produced so many men of genius ... would be hard to find".
  The school began by reflecting a renewed influence from Chinese painting, but developed a brightly coloured and firmly outlined style for large panels decorating the castles of the nobility which reflected distinctively Japanese traditions, while continuing to produce monochrome brush paintings in Chinese styles. It was supported by the shogunate, effectively representing an official style of art, which "in the 18th century almost monopolized the teaching of painting".
context_section_description: A number of paintings by the schools that are still in Japan are included in the official List of National Treasures of Japan (paintings). From the 15th century Muromachi period come the Chinese-style hanging scroll Zhou Maoshu Appreciating Lotuses by Kanō Masanobu (illustrated above), and a six-section screen by Kanō Hideyori of Maple Viewers, an early Kanō example of Yamato-e subject matter.  From the Momoyama period there is a set of room decorations on walls, doors and screens by Kanō Eitoku and his father Shōei, in the Jukō-in (abbot's lodging) at the Daitoku-ji monastery in Kyoto; this includes the doors with Birds and flowers of the four seasons illustrated here. Also by Eitoku is the screen with a Cypress tree in the Tokyo National Museum, discussed and illustrated above, and a pair of six panel screens showing crowded panoramic views of Scenes in and around the capital in a museum in Yonezawa, Yamagata.  By Kanō Naganobu there is a pair of screens (less two sections lost in an earthquake in 1923) showing relatively large figures Merry-making under aronia blossoms, also in the Tokyo National Museum.  Other artists with works on the list, for example Hasegawa Tōhaku (16th century) and Maruyama Ōkyo (19th century), were trained by the school or otherwise influenced by it.  Many other works by the school have received the lower designation of Important Cultural Properties of Japan.
caption: Birds and Flowers of the Four Seasons, a National Treasure by Kanō Eitoku, for a monastery.
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