Kanō Hōgai

Training under Kanō Shōsen'in is recorded. Kanzan Shimomura is recorded as having studied under Kanō Hōgai. The recorded working language is Japanese and English. Employment is recorded with Chōfu Domain. Works named in the authority record are Two Dragons in Clouds. Work by Kanō Hōgai is recorded in the collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Historical Museum of Bern.

• Name — Kanō Hōgai • Native Name — 狩野芳崖 • Born — 27 February 1828 • Birthplace — Chōfu Domain in modern day Yamaguchi Prefecture • Died — 5 October 1888 • Place of death — Tokyo

The son of the local daimyō's chief painter, he was sent at the age of 18 to Edo to study painting formally. He stayed there for ten years and studied under Kanō Shōsen'in and other prominent artists of the time. Hōgai would eventually be called upon for such esteemed commissions as ceiling paintings for Edo Castle. He also received the honor of having some of his works displayed at the 1876 Paris International Exposition. However, despite these honors, the economic turmoil created by the fall of the shogunate in 1868 forced Hōgai to seek to support himself with income via more mundane methods. He worked at casting iron, reclaiming land, and running a shop selling writing instruments. In 1877 Hōgai returned to Edo, now called Tokyo, and worked for the wealthy Shimazu clan; this gave him the opportunity to study works by some of Japan's greatest painting masters, including Sesshū and Sesson. In 1884, Hōgai attracted the attention of Ernest Fenollosa, an art critic and collector from New England, who befriended him and bought several of his paintings. Along with Fenollosa, Okakura Kakuzō and Hashimoto Gahō, Hōgai then took part in the Painting Appreciation Society (観画会, Kangakai). The Society was created to draw attention to the traditional Japanese arts, particularly classical art of the Heian and Nara periods which were beginning to be seriously neglected, with many works sold or even destroyed due to Japan's newfound interest in the West.

• Illustration — Two Dragons (In Clouds); Meiji Era, c. 1885. Ink on paper, framed. w135.3 × h90.2 cm. Philadelphia Museum of Art • Illustration — Hawks in a Ravine; Meiji Era, c. 1885. Ink on paper, w165.7 × h93.2 cm. Boston Museum of Fine Arts • Illustration — Lions; Meiji Era, c. 1886. Ink on paper. w49.5 × h98.3 cm. National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo • Illustration — Hibo Kannon (悲母観音); Meiji Era, 1883. Ink, color and gold on silk. w84.6 × h163.9 cm. Freer Gallery of Art • Illustration — Dragons Ascending the Heavens (飛龍昇天); Meiji Era, c. 1887; Panel, ink on paper. w62.4 × h137.9 cm. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston