Masanobu KANO, the official painter of the Muromachi shogunate, was the earliest ancestor; his descendants worked for Nobunaga ODA, Hideyoshi TOYOTOMI and the Tokugawa Shogun as painters after the collapse of the Muromachi shogunate, consistently dominating the art world associated with the powers-that-be, thus greatly influencing Japanese art circles as a professional painter group working on works ranging from screen paintings in the Imperial Palace, castles or large temples to small paintings such as those created on fans.
室町幕府の御用絵師となった狩野正信を始祖とし、その子孫は、室町幕府崩壊後は織田信長、豊臣秀吉、徳川将軍などに絵師として仕え、その時々の権力者と結び付いて常に画壇の中心を占め、内裏、城郭、大寺院などの障壁画から扇面などの小画面に至るまで、あらゆるジャンルの絵画を手掛ける職業画家集団として、日本美術界に多大な影響を及ぼした。