Foreword

Rub, Timothy

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Foreword

Timothy Rub

Ink and Gold: Art of the Kano

To those who are familiar with Japanese art, the Kano school evokes a rich set of meanings, specific as well as contextual...

Author

Timothy Rub

PublisherPhiladelphia Museum of Art

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-21642

Foreword

To those who are familiar with Japanese art, the Kano school evokes a rich set of meanings, specific as well as contextual. Long acknowledged as one of the great schools of Japanese painting, it flourished for nearly four hundred years, from the middle of the fifteenth century to the Meiji Restoration in the nineteenth, and developed against the backdrop of one of the greatest—and, to Western eyes, one of the most romantic—periods in Japanese history.

The Kano school was significant not simply because of its longevity or for the achievements of some of its most illustrious members, such as its founder, Kano Masanobu, or Kano Tan’yū, but also because it functioned as an academy of sorts, with rigorous training in workshops that fostered the development and preservation of specific pictorial traditions. It also arose and then prospered under unique circumstances, first in Kyoto and then in Edo (present-day Tokyo), with the patronage of Japan’s military and political elite. With the waning of their power and the opening of Japan to cultural influences from abroad in the late nineteenth century, the preeminent role that the Kano school had played in the history of Japanese art came to an end.

This rich and complex story has seldom been told in its entirety, at least in this country, and for this reason we are pleased to be able to publish this catalogue and share the exhibition it accompanies with audiences here in Philadelphia. Those who see Ink and Gold: Art of the Kano will have a rare opportunity to enjoy many exceptional works of art that have never before been seen outside of Japan and to learn about this important chapter in the history of Japanese painting.

This project has been a number of years in the making and has required the work of many hands as well as the help of many institutions. First among those I would like to thank are Mr. Masami Zeniya, Executive Director of the Tokyo National Museum, and the many members of his staff who provided invaluable logistical assistance with the development of Ink and Gold: Art of the Kano, and the Commissioner, Mr. Masanori Aoyagi, and staff of the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan, for the organizational and financial support that they have given to us.

To those individuals and institutions—too numerous to mention here, but listed elsewhere on a separate page—who have so generously agreed to lend the precious works of art in their collections to this exhibition, we owe our greatest debt of gratitude. And to the many funders who have assisted us, I offer heartfelt thanks. Presentation of Ink and Gold: Art of the Kano has been made possible by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, Toshiba Corporation, Toshiba International Foundation, The Japan Foundation, The Hollis Endowment for East Asian Art Educational Programming, and The Robert Montgomery Scott Endowment for Exhibitions. Additional generous support has been provided by Maxine S. and Howard H. Lewis, Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer and Joseph Neubauer, Steve and Gretchen Burke, Joan and John Thalheimer, the Estate of J. Welles Henderson, Barbara B. and Theodore R. Aronson, Andrea M. Baldeck, M.D., Marguerite and Gerry Lenfest, Sueyun and Gene Locks, and Cecilia Segawa Seigle Tannenbaum. The accompanying publication has been supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Fund for Scholarly Publications at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and The Women’s Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. International transportation has been sponsored by Japan Airlines.

The many members of our staff who made significant contributions to the realization of this project deserve special mention. Given the scope and ambition of this publication, I would like to express my gratitude to Sherry Babbitt, our William T. Ranney Director of Publications, and Richard Bonk, our Book Production Manager, who together guided the editing, design, and production process with their characteristic diligence and infallible good cheer. Thanks are due as well to Suzanne F. Wells, Director of Exhibition Planning, and her Assistant Director, Yana Balson; Kelly Marie O’Brien, Executive Director of Development, and her colleagues in our Development Division; Marla K. Shoemaker, The Kathleen C. Sherrerd Senior Curator of Education and head of our Division of Education and Public Programs, and her staff; Jack Schlechter, The Park Family Director of Installation Design, and his staff; and Irene Taurins, our Director of Registration, and her staff, who handled complex import, packing, and shipping arrangements. Without their diligence and enthusiastic support, the success of this exhibition would not have been possible.

Finally, and most importantly, I would like to acknowledge, with admiration and gratitude, the efforts of Dr. Felice Fischer, our Luther W. Brady Curator of Japanese Art and Senior Curator of East Asian Art, and her co-curator Dr. Kyoko Kinoshita, Project Associate Curator in our Department of East Asian Art, for the time and effort they have put into this project. When Dr. Fischer proposed several years ago that we mount an exhibition of the paintings of the Kano school, I enthusiastically agreed and was pleased to know that this would be the next in the series of major exhibitions of Japanese art that she has organized during her long and distinguished career here at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I am delighted that it has now come to fruition.

TIMOTHY RUB

The George D. Widener Director and
Chief Executive Officer
Philadelphia Museum of Art

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