Page 174 - JAPAN THE SHAPING OFDAIMYO CULTURE 1185-1868

than one hand, and it is believed that the monumental screen paintings and sliding 98 Miho no Matsubara
decoration campaign involved Motonobu door panels for warriors, Buddhist tem- set of six hanging scrolls
and his entire workshop of assistants and ples, and the court. Motonobu's screens ink and color on paper
apprentices. Most of the artists in the were also sent to China as official gifts each of two outer scrolls 154.2 x 54.7
workshop, which was the most prolific from the Japanese government to the (603/4x217/8)
group working in Kyoto at that time, were Ming court. each of four inner scrolls 154.2 x 59.0
family members. This assured continuity Motonobu's art drew not only on ink
and growth, along the family line. The painting, but also on colorful Yamato-e (00 3/4 X 23 V 4)
Muromachi period, mid-loth century
Kano school was founded by Masanobu (cat. 120). The principal motifs are placed
during the closing decades of the fifteenth toward the front of the composition, thus Egawa Art Museum, Hyógo Prefecture
century, and lasted some four hundred minimizing spatial depth and creating an Important Cultural Property
years. By the late eighteenth century nine illusion of slow but steady lateral move-
branch family studios were operating in ment in space. Motonobu's style of paint- This set of six hanging scrolls, which origi-
Kyoto and Edo (present-day Tokyo). Under ing flowers and birds became a standard nally decorated a six-fold screen, presents
Motonobu's astute leadership and man- formula employed by several succeeding a panoramic bird's-eye view of Miho no
agement it became the most sought-after generations of Kano painters. YS Matsubara (Pine Grove at Miho), a fa-
professional painters' group, producing mous, scenic spot on Suruga Bay, in Shi-
zuoka Prefecture. The view includes a
long stretch of sandbar with a pine grove

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