Kanō Motonobu

Kanō Motonobu (狩野 元信, August 28, 1476 – November 5, 1559) was a Japanese painter and calligrapher.

Right away Motonobu showed great promise as an artist and procured several commissions from major patrons as early as nine years old.

[2] One of his earliest documented contracts was for a set of votive plaques (e-ma) depicting for the Thirty-six Poetry Immortals for the Shinto shrine of Itsukushima.

[2] Since Motonobu was the head or chief architect of these paintings he took on the contracting, production, and organization of the projects while still being very involved with the marketing of his work and his studio.

Known for his charm and intellect, Motonobu became a fierce businessman, and frequently petitioned to the shogun for a vast amount of varied commissions with his fellow merchant, Hasuike Hideaki.

As head of the Kanō school, he took the most important rooms in a building commissioned, and then assigned his son and assistants other projects based on hierarchy.

As a result of Motonobu's marketing skills, the commissions grew allowing the workshop and school itself to expand.

As a professional painter, he left works in a variety of genres, including portraits such as that of "Iio Munegi" (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) and the "Kamo Shimba Zukaku" (votive tablet depicting a horse) for the Kamo Shrine in Hyogo Prefecture, both of which are still extant.

Motonobu's commissions were generally designed for in the home of the samurai warrior class, focusing on fusuma and byōbu.

This fusion of Chinese style and iconography with Japanese aesthetics is what helped the Kanō school achieve the legendary status it is known for today.

It also had some of the characteristics of Yamato-e style, for instance, the fine line and decorative patterning, use of colors, and gold leaf.

The Story of Xiang yan (Tokyo National Museum) shows the emergence of Kanō style, although it has an underlying Chinese philosophy to it.