Kanō Einō

Einō compiled the Honchō Gashi (本朝畫史, "Japanese painting history"), the earliest serious art-historical work in Japan.

His father succeeded Sanraku as head of the Kyō-ganō [ja][1] sub-school of Kanō artists who remained in Kyoto after the school relocated to Edo (modern Tokyo) to paint for the Tokugawa shogunate.

[1] More than as a painter Einō is remembered as editor of the Honchō Gashi (本朝畫史, "Japanese painting history").

[1] Einō completed the Honchō Gashi probably by 1678; a shortened version appeared in 1691 in five woodblock-printed volumes entitled Honchō Gaden (本朝画伝, "Japanese painting traditions"), and the full work was published in 1693.

Einō likely reworked material for this book his father had compiled earlier in the century,[2] though the earlier work is only known to have covered a quarter of the artists who appeared in the Honchō Gashi.

Portrait of Kanō Einō
Birds and Flowers of Spring and Summer , byōbu folding screen, late 17th century, 1,530 mm × 3,610 mm