Lit. "painting atelier of the southern capital" (nanto 南都, an alternative name for Nara 奈良). Refers to the three painting studios za 座 which were active in Nara by the end of the Kamakura period. For the purpose of restoring Tōdaiji 東大寺 and Kōfukuji 興福寺 which had been destroyed by fires set by Taira no Shigehira 平重衡 (1156-85) in 1180, Mikawa Hokkyō Yūson 三河法橋有尊(act. 1190-1220), claiming to follow the painting lineage of Kose no Kanaoka 巨勢金岡 (act. late 9th-early 10th century), founded *Handaza 吐田座, the first of the studios or guilds of the nanto-edokoro. Yūson worked simultaneously for both the painting bureaus of the two great inge 院家 (noble families who entered the priesthood at the same time as an ex-emperor) at Kōfukuji, the Ichijōin 一乗院 and Daijōin 大乗院. Later his eldest son Gyōson 尭尊 succeeded to the Ichijōin Handaza 一乗院吐田座, and his second son Gyōyū 尭有 to the Daijōin Handaza 大乗院吐田座. Shortly after Yūson, another painter, Daihobō Hōgen Sonchi 大輔房法眼尊智, left Kyoto for Nara and founded the *Shōnamiza 松南院座.
Around 1234/5, another painting guild, the *Shibaza 芝座, became attached to Ichijōin of Kōfukuji. The Buddhist painters *ebusshi 絵仏師 working for this za all used the character kan 観 in their signatures. The most striking extant production by the Shibaza is the Kasuga suijaku mandara 春日垂迹曼荼羅. In the Kamakura period, the Tōdaiji-edokoroza 東大寺絵所座 produced such artists as Seijun 勢順 and Raishin 頼真. In 1377, Kansei 観盛, an artist of the Shibaza, was invited into the Tōdaiji-edokoroza and between the years of 1532-55 numerous artists, such as Tōkatsumaru 藤勝丸 from the Shibaza and Rinken 琳賢 and Suke-no-hokkyō 助法橋 from the Handaza, were added to make this studio prosperous.
At the end of the Muromachi period, artists from studios called ichiiya 檪屋, which developed outside the restrictive life of the temple, painted religious works and sold them. Consequently, from the end of the Muromachi to the Edo period, the size and influence of the nanto-edokoro decreased and its status fell to the level of the *machi-eshi 町絵師. Finally in the Edo period *eya 絵屋, where paintings were sold directly from private studios, were formed in an area then called Eyachō 絵屋町 (current-day Genrin-inchō 元林院町).
Characteristics of paintings produced by the nanto-edokoro are pure colors and rich decorative effects. Of their Buddhist paintings, many depict the grounds of Kasuga Taisha 春日大社 or temple grounds, as well as mandalas of deities in their Buddhist and Shinto forms suijaku 垂迹 --all with distinctly *yamato-e やまと絵-influenced landscapes.