Born 1476; died 1559. Japanese painter, who with his father, Kano Masanobu, founded the Kano school of painting.
Kano Motonobu painted landscapes, flowers, birds, and scenes from Buddhist legends on screens, sliding partitions, and scrolls. He expanded the decorative techniques of monochromatic ink-painting and used the traditions of the yamato-e school. Most of Motonobu’s works are preserved in monasteries in or near Kyoto (Daitokuji, Reiun-in, and Koya-san).