page_title: Kanō Eitoku
section_title: Life and works
hierarchical_section_title: Kanō Eitoku / Life and works
context_page_description: Kanō Eitoku was a Japanese painter who lived during the Azuchi–Momoyama period of Japanese history and one of the most prominent patriarchs of the Kanō school of Japanese painting.
context_section_description: Born in Kyoto, Eitoku was the grandson of Kanō Motonobu (1476–1559), an official painter for the Ashikaga shogunate. He was recognized for his artistic talent at a very young age. Under Motonobu's guidance, he developed his grandfather's style, which had influence from Chinese painting.
  Collaborating with his father Shōei (1519–92), Eitoku painted the wall panels of the abbot's quarters in Jukō-in, a subtemple of the Daitoku-ji Zen monastic complex in Kyoto.
  Eitoku's patrons included Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi.  His standing screen, sliding door, wall, and ceiling paintings decorated Nobunaga's Azuchi castle and Hideyoshi's residence in Kyoto and Osaka Castle.  Contemporary accounts indicate that Eitoku was one of the most highly sought-after artists of his time, and received many wealthy and powerful patrons.  Maintaining the preeminence of the Kanō School was not merely an artistic feat, but an organizational and political one also.  Eitoku was able to secure a steady stream of commissions and an efficient workshop of students and assistants, and at one point successfully intercepted a warlord's commission of the rival Hasegawa studio.
caption: Chinese guardian lions (Karajishi), at the Museum of the Imperial Collections
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