Assassin's Creed Shadows: Kano Painting Locations & Interactive Tracking Guide

Kano Paintings in Assassin's Creed Shadows are the 10 wrapped masterpieces by the legendary Kano Eitoku — the historical founder of the Kano school of Japanese painting — hidden across castle grounds throughout Japan and endangered by the fires of the Sengoku wars.

Finding all 10 for the "Art Collector" quest decorates the Hideout's Hiroma room with three historic artworks. All 10 confirmed locations are marked on Map Master's Assassin's Creed Shadows Japan map.

Starting "Art Collector": Kano Eitoku in Kyoto

The quest is available from Act 1 — no specific story trigger is needed. Visit Kano Eitoku at his Painting School in Kyoto, Yamashiro, located on the western side of Nijo Palace.

He'll explain that constant Castle sieges threaten to destroy his life's work and asks both protagonists to recover the panels before they're lost. The quest is also marked with a "!" icon visible from the Yamashiro questboard.

Kano Eitoku is also documented as a Cultural Discovery entry in the game's Codex — one of the Historical Characters who shaped the Sengoku artistic world. His entry appears near his school in Kyoto.

Three Return Trips, Three Hideout Rewards

The quest runs on a checkpoint system requiring three separate returns to Kano Eitoku's school — not a single handover on completion:

• Return with 3 paintings → reward: "Birds in a Landscape" decoration for the Hideout Hiroma room
• Return with 6 paintings → reward: "Garden Scene" decoration for the Hideout Hiroma room. (At 6 paintings, the quest automatically updates to ask you to return to Kano. Players can choose to ignore this update and continue collecting all 10 before returning — both approaches work, and the reward is the same.)
• Return with all 10 paintings → reward: 1,000 XP + "Painting of Lions" decoration for the Hideout Hiroma room

All three decorations are placed specifically in the Hiroma — the main front-facing room of the Hideout, not the private quarters or garden.

Where the Paintings Are: Castle Buildings, Not the Tenshu

Kano Paintings appear as wrapped cloth-and-rope parcels — bundled for transport, not displayed as mounted canvases.

They're located inside buildings within castle grounds: courtyard houses, study rooms, lord's quarters, and garrison buildings. Most are NOT in the Tenshu (the main keep tower where Legendary Chests and Viewpoints sit).

The one notable exception is Azuchi Castle, where the painting is inside Nobunaga's trophy room in the Tenshu itself.

The white painting icon on the map only appears when fully zoomed in on a castle location. Use the map filter (D-pad Down → scroll to Kano Paintings) to isolate them. The icon indicates which building in the castle grounds holds the panel.

Naoe or Yasuke?

Unlike the Kamon Crest guide — which is Yasuke-exclusive due to heavy obstacle mechanics — Kano Paintings can be collected by either character.

Naoe is recommended for most locations: her speed, stealth, and parkour make navigating guarded castle buildings faster and quieter than Yasuke's direct approach.

Castles at the recommended level of 38 have dense guard coverage, and paintings often sit in rooms with soldiers standing directly in front.