Winner of the John Whitney Hall Book PrizeWinner of the Charles Rufus Morey Book Award

In this eloquent and far-ranging work, Yukio Lippit explores the seventeenth-century consolidation of Japanese painting by the famed Kano painting house, whose style evolved from the legacy of Zen monk-painters of the medieval era and intertwined Chinese with native Japanese practices. Legitimacy was transmitted from master to disciple in a manner similar to that in religious traditions. Lippit illuminates the role of key factors--bequeathal of artworks, authentication of art, painting in the mode...