Kano Hogai

• Born: 1828/1/13
• Died: 1888/11/5
• Other Names: 幸太郎 (Koutarou), 延信 (Enshin), 雅道 (Tadamichi), 松隣 (Shourin), 皐隣 (Kourin), 勝海 (Shoukai)
• Japanese: 狩野芳崖 (Kanou Hougai)

Kanô Hôgai was the last great master of the Kanô school of painting, and a pioneer of the Nihonga (neo-traditional painting) style, or movement, in the early Meiji period.

Hôgai was born in Innai, Chôfu han, in what is today the city of Shimonoseki. He was the eldest son of domain court painter (goyô eshi) Kanô Seikô. His childhood name was Kôtarô, though he also came to be known by a number of other names, including Enshin, Shôrin, and Kôrin. He studied painting originally under his father, and practiced Zen meditation under Rinryû-oshô, abbot of his family's family temple, Kakuen-ji; the abbot, and his meditation practice, are said to have had a great influence on Hôgai. In fact, it was from Rinryû-oshô that the artist received the name Hôgai. Though Hôgai's name is written with characters literally meaning, roughly, "fragrant cliff," it is a homophone for hôgai, meaning "outside of the Law," making reference to a teaching, that "the culmination of Zen is to enter the Law [or, the Dharma], and to leave it."

In 1846, Hôgai traveled to Edo, where he entered the tutelage of Kanô Osanobu (aka Seisen'in), head of the Kobiki-chô Kanô school. Osanobu passed away shortly afterward, and Hôgai began to study under Kanô Shôsen'in Tadanobu. It was at this time that he met Hashimoto Gahô, a fellow student with whom Hôgai would remain close lifelong friends. Gahô, like Hôgai, would go on to play a key role in pioneering Nihonga painting.

Hôgai became head of the studio around 1850. He received the honor of using a character of his master's name around 1849, taking on the name Shôkai, and received the honor over again around 1852, taking on the name Tadamichi and becoming an independent Kanô artist in his own right (i.e. no longer a student, or apprentice, under a master). He then became a court painter for the lord of Chôfu han, as his father had been before him.

When Edo castle was rebuilt in 1860, Hôgai was commissioned to create a ceiling painting for the Ôhiroma (main audience hall). As the various national affairs of the Bakumatsu period ramped up, Hôgai then came to paint maps of the Kanmon Straits, among other works, for the Tokugawa shogunate.

明治維新後失禄,明治10(1877)年上京後も精工社で輸出用陶器の下図を描いたりしたが,12年ごろ「犬追物図」制作のため島津家雇となる。15年にはアーネスト・フェノロサの知遇を得,17年フェノロサが組織した鑑画会に参加。翌18年第1回鑑画会大会で「伏竜羅漢図」が3等賞,19年同第2回「二王ノ図(仁王捉鬼図)」(個人蔵)が1等賞を受賞し,同会の中心作家としてフェノロサと二人三脚で日本画の近代化を進める。 代表作は,この晩年の数年間に集中しており,ここにいたって,狩野派,室町水墨画,維新後の明清画研究に,遠近法や西洋的色彩などの西洋絵画研究が加えられ,それらが集大成された。「不動明王図」「岩石図」「暁霧山水図」(いずれも東京芸大蔵)のほか,絶作「悲母観音図」(東京芸大蔵)は,日本画近代化の第一段階における記念碑的作品ともなっている。フェノロサ,ビゲローらとの関係から,アメリカのボストン美術館,フィラデルフィア美術館,フリア美術館にも作品が収蔵されている。また明治17年図画調査会雇,19年図画取調掛雇,21年東京美術学校(東京芸大)雇となり,美術学校の設立に尽力したが,同校開校の3カ月前に急逝した。 （佐藤道信）

References

• "Kanô Hôgai," Asahi Nihon rekishi jinbutsu jiten 朝日日本歴史人物事典, Asahi Shimbunsha.