Page:A history of Japanese colour-prints by Woldemar von Seidlitz.djvu/117

Rh collected, that Japanese ceramic attained its culmination, and that the castles of the gentlefolk were ornamented with rich mural decoration. Kano Yeitoku, the grandson of Motonobu, who died at the age of forty-eight, towards the end of the sixteenth century, deserves especial mention. He was the creator of a great decorative style, and was the first to use gold-leaf in large quantity for backgrounds, especially in his folding screens; he ranks, according to Fenollosa, as the last great representative of the Kano school, being hardly inferior to Motonobu, and indeed almost the greatest of Japanese painters. Binyon (pl. ) reproduces a winter landscape by him. His method was carried on by his son-in-law, Kano Senraku, as also by his sons, Mitsunobu and Takanobu. Binyon (pl. ) gives a wash-landscape in the Chinese style by a pupil of Senraku, Sansetsu (died ). Takanobu had three sons distinguished as painters—Morinobu, also called Tanyu, Naonobu, and Yasunobu.

Tanyu, who lived from, and is regarded as the founder of a special branch of the school, tried to unify the endeavours of the ancients and to quicken them into new life. More notable for the originality of his creations than for careful execution, he painted in a style which stands midway between that of Sesshu and Motonobu, seldom using colours; but he was lacking in the power and originality necessary to create a new style. His representation of Fuji, in which only small quantities of green and blue were made use of, was particularly famous. Prints after his drawings were published in the collection Gwako senran. Binyon (pl. ) reproduces one of his pictures. Gonse (i. ) gives a sketch by him, and Anderson a print. From Naonobu, the younger brother of Tanyu, Gonse reproduces a hare (i. ). A landscape by Yasunobu, the third of the brothers, is reproduced by Anderson. Tsunenobu, the son of Naonobu, Fenollosa calls