(b Chofu, Nagato Province [now Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefect.], 1828; d Tokyo, 1888). Son of Kano Seiko ( fl first half of the 19th century). He was one of the last practising artists of the Kano school, and his unique blend of Japanese and Western techniques, known as Wayo setchu (‘Japanese–Western mixture’), contributed to the development of modern Japanese-style painting (Nihonga; see JAPAN, §VI, 5(iii)). He received his early training in the Kano-school style from his father while also studying traditional Japanese-style painting (Yamatoe; see JAPAN, §VI, 3(iii)) with Morokuzo Shukin ( fl mid-19th century), a painter of the TOSA SCHOOL, and literati painting (Nanga, Bunjinga; see JAPAN, §VI, 4(vi)(d)) with Watarai Tomei ( fl mid-19th century). For ten years from 1846 he received a stipend from the lords of the Chofu domain to undertake formal painting instruction with Kano Shosen’in Tadanobu (1823–80), master of the Kobikicho Kano studio in Edo (now Tokyo). He showed exceptional promise but grew impatient with the tired conventions of 19th-century Kano painting and turned for inspiration to the ink painting of the Muromachi period (1333–1568), notably that of Toyo Sesshu and Sesson Shukei. Frequently in disagreement with his Kano teachers over matters such as proper colour application and brush method, Hogai was nearly expelled from the school in Edo and was saved only by the mediation of a colleague. He completed his apprenticeship in 1851, and from 1852 to 1856 he studied with Sakuma Shozan (1811–64), a scholar of Western studies who had opened a school adjacent to the Kobikicho Kano school. Hogai was drawn to Western pictorial concepts such as linear perspective and modelling in light and shade.

Part of the Kano family

• Kano Hogai
  • Kano
  • groups and movements
    • Japan, §VI, 5(iii)(a): Modern painting: Nihonga in the Meiji period
    • Kano school, §4: After 1868
  • pupils
    • Shimomura, Kanzan
  • works
    • Toyo Sesshu, §2: Context and influence