Hanpo

Hanpo 半哺 (active 1904-1912)

BIOGRAPHY

While Merritt tells us in Guide to Modern Japanese Prints1 that the print artist who signed his name Hanpo on a 1912 print of the funeral procession for Emperor Meiji is one and the same as the nanga painter Yasuda Hanpo 安田半圃 (1889-1947), they are not the same artist. While the signatures on the prints incorrectly attributed to Yasuda Hanpo are read "Hanpo" they are signed with the characters 半哺 rather than the characters 半圃 appearing on his paintings.  (See examples below.) In addition, the 1889 date of birth of Yasuda Hanpo the nanga painter would have made him only fifteen years old when the Russo-Japanese War prints attributed to him were issued in 1904. (See examples below taken from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.)

So, we are left with another artist who is known only by his signature appearing on several prints created during the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War and then seven years later on two prints depicting the 1912 funeral procession of Emperor Meiji.

1 Guide to Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: 1900-1975, Helen Merritt, University of Hawaii Press, 1992, p.173.

Signatures and Seals Appearing on Woodblock Prints Incorrectly Attributed to Yasuda Hanpo

Signatures and Seals Appearing on Scrolls (ink on silk) Correctly Attributed to Yasuda Hanpo 

Examples of the Artist's Russo-Japanese War Woodblock Prints Incorrectly Attributed to Yasuda Hanpo 

Prints in Collection

[BELOW PRINTS GIFTED TO THE JORDAN SCHNITZER MUSEUM OF ART, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON]

click on thumbnail for print details