Eishin

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 goyō eshi, 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 (画道要訣, "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 (永真) and Bokushinsai (牧心斎).

Works by Kanō Yasunobu