Buddhist Art in Japan - Azuchi-Momoyama Period (1573-1603)

Azuchi-Momoyama Period (1573-1603)

This period saw the rise of the Kanō school (狩野派 Kanō-ha?) which is one of the most famous schools of Japanese painting. The Kanō school of painting was the dominant style of painting until the Meiji period. It was founded by Kanō Masanobu (1434–1530), a contemporary of Sesshū and student of Shūbun who became an official painter in the Shogun's court. The artists who followed him including his son improved upon his style and methods. His son, Kano Motonobu (1476-1559) established the Kano style as the main Japanese painting school during the Muromachi period.

In sharp contrast to the previous Muromachi period, the Azuchi Momoyama period was characterized by a grandiose polychrome style, with extensive use of gold and silver foil, and by works on a very large scale. Kano school painters were patronized by Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu, and their followers. Kano Eitoku developed a formula for the creation of monumental landscapes on the sliding doors enclosing a room. These huge screens and wall paintings were commissioned to decorate the castles and palaces of the military nobility. This status continued into the subsequent Edo period, as the Tokugawa bakufu continued to promote the works of the Kano school as the officially sanctioned art for the Shogun, daimyo, and Imperial court. The rise of the Kano school saw a beginning of a move away from buddhist themes, as Kano school patrons commissioned paintings of a more secular nature to decorate their palaces.

However some painters in this period continued to look back to the Buddhist priest-painters which had initially influenced the Kano school. One of these painters was Hasegawa Tōhaku, who was influenced by the monochrome ink paintings of the Muromachi painter Sesshū and developed his own style of Sumi-e which looked back to the minimalism of its predecessors. Tōhaku was in fact so much enamored with the techniques of Sesshū Tōyō that he attempted to claim rights as his fifth successor, though he lost in a court battle to Unkoku Togan. Still, the influence of Sesshū is evident in many of Tōhaku's mid to late works, such as his famous Shōrin-zu byōbu (松林図 屏風?) Pine Trees screen, which were declared a national treasure of Japan are argued to be the first paintings of their scale to depict only pine trees as subject matter.

The school founded by Hasegawa Tōhaku is known today as the Hasegawa school. This school was small, consisting mostly of Tōhaku and his sons. However small, its members conserved Tōhaku's quiet and reserved aesthetic, which many attribute to the influence of Sesshū as well as his contemporary and friend, Sen no Rikyū. It is suspected that these simple aesthetics protest the usage of intimidation and wealth rampant in the Kanō School.

• Pagoda of Shoman-in in Osaka. It was rebuilt in 1597.

• Golden Hall of Daigo-ji in Kyoto. It was rebuilt in 1600.

• Kaizando and Nyoirindo of Daigo-ji in Kyoto. They were rebuilt in 1606.

• Pagoda of Kirihata-ji in Awa. It was built in 1607.