This painting is listed in the 1926 publication The Complete Collection of Works by Master Hogai as “Hawk painting, made at age 54, in the Prince Shimazu Tadashige Collection.” Hawks were prized by warriors for their use in the military exercise of falconry and were thus an important subject matter for painters of the Kano school, who served the samurai class. Born into a family of official painters for the Chofu domain in Nagato Province (now Yamaguchi Prefecture) and trained under the Kobikicho Kano branch in Edo, Kano Hogai also created numerous hawk paintings. A comparison of three paintings by Hogai—a youthful work bearing the seal “Shokai” (勝海); a painting on a cedar door from a period when he struggled in Shimonoseki after the Meiji Restoration (1868); and this work here from his later years around the time when his life became more stable—demonstrates developments in his artistic style over the span of his career. Most prominent is his incorporation of quick, bold ink lines, which is evident in this later work.

When looking at the evolution of Japanese painting from the Edo period (1615–1868) to the present, the disappearance of ink lines is evident. This departure can be clearly seen in techniques without the use of lines such as the tsuketate technique (a technique that creates gradations by varying the volume of ink applied between the base and tip of the brush) of Maruyama Okyo (1733–1795) and the hazy forms of Yokoyama Taikan (1868–1958) and Hishida Shunso (1874–1911). Okyo, Taikan, and Shunso did not completely stop using black ink lines, and the same is true of prewar masters, though after World War II, the ink lines mostly disappear. Now that ink brushes have disappeared from daily life, its revival becomes almost impossible.

The ink line for Hogai was the foundation of his technique. He once took an exam for the artillery arsenal’s design department during the period of underappreciation for his talent after the Meiji Restoration but failed. He apparently painted thick lines, ignoring the assignment to draw thin and thick lines using a ruling pen. Lines were Hogai’s conviction. When the nihonga painter Shimomura Kanzan (1873–1930) began studying under Hogai, the master had his pupil single-mindedly draw lines. Hogai’s ink lines went against the trends of modern Japanese painting, and he painted them with tenacious confidence.

As his life became more stable under the patronage of the Shimazu clan, Hogai painted his greatest work, Dog Chasing Contest (Shoko Shuseikan Museum). Like falconry, the dog chasing contest was a military exercise for warrior families. Even though samurai rule ended with the Meiji Restoration, their spirit survived. Hogai’s later works, including the hawk painting here, were created from such a milieu. While his spatial expression shows the influence of Western painting, the beginnings of the strong, sharp contour lines with ink gradations here can also be seen in the landscape paintings of early Kano masters such as Motonobu (1476–1559) and his contemporaries. The works of Kano painters from the late Edo period also exhibit a tendency to revive this expression of space, enabling Hogai to adopt this style in his own works. This painting from the final years of his life represents the last brilliant glimmers of the Kano school, which had continued since the Muromachi period (1333–1573), and the samurai spirit. In the presence of this work, a sense of awe fills us as we become aware of the tepid flower field-like world that surrounds us today.

Kano Hogai (nihonga painter; 1827–1888)
Nihonga painter, originally from Choshu Province (now Yamaguchi Prefecture). Hogai together with Hashimoto Gaho counts among the most influential painters of the early Meiji period. With initial training from Kano Shosen’in Tadanobu, Hogai strove to enrich the traditional Kano style with elements of Western art, in the process contributing to the establishment of nihonga, modern Japanese painting. Hogai is known for his close connection to Ernest Fenollosa and Okakura Tenshin, and his involvement in the founding of the Tokyo Fine Arts School.