Hasegawa Sadanobu II

Hasegawa Sadanobu II 二代長谷川貞信 (1848-1940) [Konobu I 初代小信]

BIOGRAPHY

Sources: The Hotei Encyclopedia of Japanese Woodblock Prints, Amy Reigle Newland, Hotei Publishing Company, 2005, p. 439; the website of the Fukeiga Library http://fukeiga.library.pref.osaka.jp/gaka.php?ID=114

The second of six generations of Hasegawas, starting with his father Hasegawa Sadanobu I (1809-1879) and continuing through Sadanobu IV (1914-1999) and Konobu V (born 1946). [See Hasegawa Lineage below.] He was born in Osaka and used the gō (artist name) Konobu 小信 until 1879 when he started using the Sadanobu name as his gō upon the death of his father Sadanobu I. He studied with his father and with Osai Yoshiume 鶯斎芳梅 (1819-1879), (a.k.a. Utagawa Yoshiume), a student of Utagawa Kuniyoshi’s (1797-1861). He spent about three years in Kobe starting in 1867 during which he produced a number of prints showing scenes of the impact of Westerners in and around the city.

His real name was Hasegawa Tokutarō 長谷川徳太朗.

His print designs include depictions of actors (yakusha-e), landscapes (fūkei-ga), civilization and enlightenment/modernization (bunmei kaika-e), the Sino-Japanese War (sensō-e), illustrations for novels (kuchi-e), advertising flyers (hikifuda 引き札) and prints for newspaper supplements (nishiki-e shinbun). His nishiki-e shinbun prints were mostly created for the Osaka Yubin hochi shinbun (Postal News) and the Osaka nichinichi shinbunshi (Osaka Daily News), for which he also wrote stories.

For a full range of the artist's work see the website of Kansai University Library at http://kul01.lib.kansai-u.ac.jp/library/etenji/hasegawa/shodai.html [accessed 10-26-23]

Picture of Prosperity on the Kobe Coast

摂津神戸海岸繁栄之図　二代目　長谷川貞信画　明治4年（1871)

The Hasegawa Lineage

Sources: "Mameban nishiki-e" by Peter Ujlaki and John Fiorillo, appearing in Andon 103, Journal of the Society for Japanese Arts, spring 2017, p. 64 and as clarified in email exchanges with John Fiorillo on June 6, 2017 and July 27, 2020.

Note: Ujlaki and Fiorillo in their article note the following: "The literature on the Hasegawa lineage of artists (unusually, all were blood relations, i.e., sons and one daughter; none were adopted into the lineage) offers conflicting identifications for the use of 'Konobu' (earlier gō or art name).