Kanō Yasunobu was born in Kyoto on the 1st day of the 12th month of the 18th year of
Keichō (10 January 1614). His father was
Kanō Takanobu (1571–1618) whose two elder sons
Tan'yū and
Naonobu moved to
Edo (modern Tokyo) to become , an exclusive position painting for the
Tokugawa shogunate. The Kyoto line continued after Takanobu's death in 1618 under
Kanō Mitsunobu's son
Sadanobu, who adopted Yasunobu as he had no heir. Yasunobu succeeded him as head of the Kyoto Kanō in 1623. Yasunobu thus continued the Kyoto line until he also was made
goyō eshi and moved to Edo, though he maintained his claim as head of the Kyoto branch. Yasunobu was a dedicated scholar and painter, but his skill is considered inferior to that of his brothers. His was a studied technique learned through faithful copying of masters' models. His colour work was in the idiom of Tan'yū, and his
ink wash painting had a realistic vigour. His most important work was not his painting but the
Gadō Yōketsu (,
"The Secret Way of Painting", 1680), a training manual for Kanō painters and
hagiography of the school. Before this book's publication, Kanō techniques were passed down orally from master to apprentice, and there was disunity in the teaching methods of the school's branches. Yasunobu died in Edo on the 4th day of the 9th month of the 2nd year of
Jōkyō (1 October 1685). He also worked under the
art names Eishin () and Bokushinsai (). Tokugawa Ietsuna.jpg Sanjūrokkasen-gaku - 25 - Kanō Yasunobu - Chūnagon Asatada.jpg Sanjūrokkasen-gaku - 26 - Kanō Yasunobu - Fujiwara no Takamitsu.jpg Sanjūrokkasen-gaku - 27 - Kanō Yasunobu - Mibu no Tadamine.jpg Sanjūrokkasen-gaku - 28 - Kanō Yasunobu - Ōnakatomi no Yoritomo Asomi.jpg Sanjūrokkasen-gaku - 29 - Kanō Yasunobu - Minamoto no Shigeyuki.jpg Sanjūrokkasen-gaku - 30 - Kanō Yasunobu - Saneakira Asomi.jpg Sanjūrokkasen-gaku - 31 - Kanō Yasunobu - Minamoto no Shitagō.jpg Sanjūrokkasen-gaku - 32 - Kanō Yasunobu - Kiyohara no Motosuke.jpg Sanjūrokkasen-gaku - 33 - Kanō Yasunobu - Fujiwara no Motozane.jpg Sanjūrokkasen-gaku - 36 - Kanō Yasunobu - Nakatsukasa.jpg Sanjūrokkasen-gaku - 34 - Kanō Yasunobu - Fujiwara no Nakafumi.jpg Sanjūrokkasen-gaku - 35 - Kanō Yasunobu - Mibu no Tadami.jpg ==References==