Motonobu, or Kano Motonobu is the son of the painter Masanobu, the official founder of the Kano school, one of the most famous schools of Japanese painting, but only in Motonobu's works does the decorative style of the Kano blossom into full flower.

Motonobu's brilliant synthesis of bold Chinese-style brushwork and the decorative color and lyric mood of traditional Japanese painting is exemplified by his paintings in ink and soft color, such as Stork on a Branch, executed around 1545.