goyō-eshi 御用絵師

Painters who were given a salary in the service of the shogunate or daimyō 大名. Although the Imperial Court and various temples had employed artists at ateliers *edokoro 絵所 since the Heian period, the artist Shūbun 周文 (first half of the 15th century) was the first to be employed by the shogunate. His position was succeeded by Oguri Sōtan 小栗宗湛 (1413-81) and then by Kano Masanobu 狩野正信 (1434-1530) and Motonobu 元信 (1476-1559). The painters of the Kano school *Kano-ha 狩野派 were goyō-eshi of the successive shoguns in the late Muromachi and Momoyama periods and laid the foundation of its prosperity in the Edo period. This term, however, is sometimes more narrowly applied only to the government employed Kano painters after Tan'yū 探幽 (1602-74), whose positions were firmly established in the governmental system.