Title: Kano Uyasunobu Emaki (Kano Yasunobu Picture Scroll), Circa 1660-1670. A Monumental Emakimono Handscroll with Fourteen Beautiful, and Large Ink Wash Paintings, totalling 12 Meters. Great Creatures, Landscapes, and More
Author: Attributed to Kano Yasunobu
Condition: Very Good
An Early Edo Period, mid to late 17th century emakimono handscroll, tentatively dubbed Kano Uyasunobu Emaki, or Kano Yasunobu Picture Scroll.
As the name entails, the handscroll is a series of beautiful ink wash paintings Kano School artist and head, Kano Yasunobu, with various subjects and themes.
The first four paintings are that of beautifully rendered landscapes, with various buildings and structures dotting the earth.
The fifth painting is that of Shisui, also known as The Four Sleeping Gods, a subject of Zen and Taoist paintings depicting the legendary poets and monks Hokan, Hanshan, and Jittoku sleeping with a tiger. It is said to represent the truth, wonderful principles, and state of mind of Zen.
The sixth, seventh, and eighth paintings depict similar scenes of other legendary figures and possible Immortals.
The ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelve paintings depict various, beautiful bird and flower scenes, with different flowers and greenery complimenting each avian grouping, whether ducks or something else.
The thirteenth and fourteenth paintings are those depicting a mighty dragon in the skies, and a tiger stealthily perched beneath the grass.
This emakimono handscroll of paintings is attributed to Kano Yasunobu (1614-1685), signed 狩野右斎 安信圖之, or Kanō Migi Toki Yasunobu Tono, with one of his octagonal artist seals, though I do not recognize the other seal. The ink wash painting techniques are most certainly in his style, and the quality comes close to other examples he has produced as well. The way the painting is signed Yasunobu Tono at the end would date it to Circa 1660-1670, as that is when he signed with that honorific. All of the paintings depicted are also scenes he has commonly produced during his career as well.
Born December 1, 1613, in Kyoto, he was the third son of Kano Takanobu, adopted by Kano Sadanobu and succeeded the head of the Kano family. He was also the youngest brother of Kanō Tan'yū, one of the most prominent painters of the Kanō School's history. During the Kan'ei era (1624-1644), he established the Nakahashi Kano family in Edo as an inner palace painter for the shogunate. He participated in the production of wall paintings for the Imperial Palace, and during the Enpo era, as the highest leader of the Kano school, he painted the "Kensho Shoji" (Signs and Sages) in the Shishinden Hall. He passed away on September 4, 1672, at the age of 73. His other works include the sliding door painting "Seven Sages in the Bamboo Grove and Four Loves" at Gyokurin-in Temple, Daitokuji Temple.
The paintings have been laid down and bound in a scroll for preservation, with a beautiful brocade decorated cover, and there are jikusaki (knobs). There is a wooden box to accompany it, preserving the scroll, though I’m not sure it was one originally made for it.
One brocade decorated emakimono (picture scroll) on fine paper, 29.5 x 1192 cm
This emakimono is in very good shape, with minimal wear or rubbing to the brocade. There are some old, repaired, worm tracks to the first three of four paintings, heaviest to the first two. The final painting of the tiger has a large, vertical crease. There is very light, scattered soiling and staining.