Special Exhibition Commemorating the 130th Anniversary of the Kyoto National Museum  
The Great Kano School: Master Painters of Japan

The Kano school was the largest and most influential lineage of painters in Japanese history. This major retrospective, marking the 130th anniversary of the Kyoto National Museum in spring 2027, is the first of its kind in half a century—and the most comprehensive and ambitious exhibition devoted to this illustrious artistic dynasty to date.
Sustained through hereditary succession and a highly organized workshop system, the Kano school dominated Japan’s art world for centuries. The patronage of successive political elites—from the Ashikaga shogunate through Oda Nobunaga (1534–1582) and Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537–1598) to the Tokugawa shoguns—further cemented its extraordinary influence. The scale and longevity of the Kano lineage are without parallel in Japan or elsewhere in the world.
This unprecedented presentation—double the scope of a typical special exhibition—is divided into Part I: Muromachi to Momoyama Periods and Part II: Edo to Meiji Periods, with a week-long closure in between for the complete reinstallation of the galleries. Tracing the history of the Kano school through generations of distinctive artists, this exhibition offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience firsthand the four-century legacy of Japan’s most celebrated painting lineage.

National Treasure
Scenes In and Around the Capital (left screen)
By Kano Eitoku
Yonezawa City Uesugi Museum, Yamagata