Kazunobu produced mainly Buddhist paintings[1] and he is best known for his highly acclaimed Five Hundred Arhats.
[6] Five Hundred Arhats (五百羅漢図) is a set of 100 hanging scrolls created between 1854 and 1863, the year Kazunobu's death.
It is widely considered one of the most important religious paintings from the Edo period,[9][10][11] variously praised by its "unique style" and "strong characters in thick colors"[12] and its "visually disturbing, original interpretation of the subject".
[15] Kazunobu's Five Hundred Arhats was mostly overlooked through the twentieth century but it has attracted attention in recent years, with an exhibition of 2 of the scrolls in 2006 at the Tokyo National Museum,[16] and the first ever exhibition of the complete set in 2011 at the Edo-Tokyo Museum.
A second set of 50 scrolls of Five Hundred Arhats (五百羅漢図) is owned by the Tokyo National Museum.