The Legacy of the Tosa Lineage: The Life and Art of Tosa Mitsunori In the vibrant transition between the Azuchi–Momoyama period and the dawn of the Edo era, few figures embodied the preservation of Japanese classical aesthetics as profoundly as Tosa Mitsunori. Born in 1583 in the prosperous merchant city of Sakai, Mitsunori was not merely an artist but a custodian of a sacred visual language. As the son of the celebrated Tosa Mitsuyoshi, he was born into a lineage of painters dedicated to the Yamato-e style—a tradition that prioritized the intrinsic beauty of Japanese landscapes, literature,…