Japan, late 17th-18th century. Ink, and watercolor on silk. Mounted as a hanging scroll on a silk brocade coated paper frame with wooden handles. Gracefully painted, a group of boys play together in a grassy meadow with large rocks near a rushing stream beneath a tall maple tree.

Inscriptions: Signed, ‘Tsunenobu hitsu’ 常信筆 (‘Painted by Tsunenobu’) and stamped with the artist’s pot-seal mark.

Provenance: From the collection of Felix Tikotin, and thence by descent within the family. Felix Tikotin (1893-1986) was an architect, art collector, and founder of the first Museum of Japanese Art in the Middle East. Born in Glogau, Germany, to a Jewish family, his ancestors had returned with Napoleon from Russia from a town named Tykocin. He grew up in Dresden and after World War I, he traveled to Japan and immediately fell in love with the culture. In April 1927, he opened his own first gallery in Berlin. The entire family survived the holocaust, and in the 1950s Tikotin slowly resumed his activities as a dealer in Japanese art. He became, once again, very successful and prominent, holding exhibitions all over Europe and the United States. When he first visited Israel in 1956, he decided that the major part of his collection belonged in that country. In 1960, the Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art was opened in Haifa.
Condition: Good condition with minor wear, minuscule staining, small losses or tears with associated touch-ups, and some dark spots. The silk brocade is in good condition with minor wear.

Dimensions: Image size 115.5 x 47.8 cm, Size incl. mounting 206 x 60 cm

Kano Tsunenobu (1636–1713) was a Japanese painter of the Kano school. He first studied under his father, Kano Naonobu, and then his uncle, Kano Tan'yu, after his father's death. He became a master painter and succeeded his uncle Tan'yu as head of the Kano school in 1674. It is believed that many works attributed to Tan'yu might actually be by Tsunenobu, but it is difficult to know since they often worked on larger pieces together.

The Kano School was the longest lived and most influential school of painting in Japanese history; its more than 300-year prominence is unique in world art history. Working from the fifteenth century into modern times, this hereditary assemblage of professional and secular painters succeeded in attracting numerous patrons from the most affluent social classes by developing, mastering, and promoting a broad range of painting styles, pictorial themes, and formats.

Throughout the centuries, the Kano school consisted of numerous studios where groups of well trained and skillful craftsmen worked together to serve clients from wealthy classes like samurai, aristocrats, Buddhist clergy, and the increasingly affluent merchants. While they attempted to remain obscure, in part relying on family ties for commissions, the popularity and prominence of the Kano school led to the establishment of offshoots in many cities. The Kano school style was transmitted even more widely by artists who were trained by Kano painters but not officially connected with family studios, and by rival artists imitating their style to suit patrons’ demands.