Minneapolis Institute of Art

Hawk

Kano Yukinobu

Date

16th century

Medium

Hanging scroll, ink on paper

Department

Asian Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

This painting of a hawk perched on the branch of an old tree and possibly eyeing some prey below was once the left half of a pair of paintings (see its original mate below). The hawk’s feathers, meticulously rendered in fine brushwork over various shades of ink wash, reflect the influence of artist Kano Yukinobu’s better-known older brother, Kano Motonobu (1476–1559), the second-generation head of the powerful Kano house, which dominated Japanese painting circles from the 1500s to 1800s. A key subject in the Kano repertoire, birds of prey were symbols of power and might that would have appealed to one of the Kano house’s military patrons. Asia

The authoritative record is held by Minneapolis Institute of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.