Kanō Sanraku

[3] After Eitoku's death (1590), Sanraku became head of the Kanō school[1] and remained busy taking commissions from Hideyoshi and his son, Toyotomi Hideyori, from 1590 to 1615.

This meant commissions from the Toyotomi clan were focused within their family castle (Momoyama Castle—original no longer surviving), reconstruction of Imperial imagery, and paintings for Buddhist temples and Shinto Shrines all around Kyoto.

[6][7] Though many of his primary commissions were in Kyoto at the time, most of the Kanō artists moved to Edo (often after a summons from the shōgun), but he continued to adhere to the brightly coloured style of the Momoyama period.

[6] Though he retreated slightly from the dynamic imagery, substituting first a naturalism of expression and then a quality of elegant ornamentation, he skill pushed the revitalization of yamato-e through the gold-and-blue technique.

This phase of painting represented a more intellectual approach to pictorial content on the part of the artist—and often commissioner—whether it be reworking traditional yamato-e theme or interpreting complex and unfamiliar subjects from Chinese literature.