Biography

The third of six generations of blood descendants of Hasegawa Sadanobu I 長谷川貞信 (1809-1879), Hasegawa Sadanobu III was born in Osaka with the given name of Nobutarō.  He studied with his father Hasegawa Sadanobu II (1848-1940), who used the gō (art name) Konobu 小信 (making him Konobu I).   A younger brother of Sadanobu II, who lived until the age of twenty, used the gō  Konobu II, making Hasegawa Sadanobu III, Konobu III, when he took this name as his gō.  Konobu III's specialties were prints related to the kabuki and bunraku (puppet) theaters and historical prints. 

In 1925 he designed thirty prints (divided into 3 collections) showing various types of kumadori or stylized makeup used in kabuki.  In 1926/1927 he created a series of forty-eight prints depicting the stage set and main characters (in the form of puppets) of ten bunraku plays.  The series was titled Illustrated Collection of Famous Japanese Puppets of the Osaka Bunrakuza 大阪文楽座人形画集 日本名物 and contained twelve sections, one for each play.  The first edition of this collection of prints was jointly issued by the publishers Bijutsusha 美術社 in Tokyo and Hangakai hanmoto 版画会板元 in Kyoto.  At an unknown later date Uchida Publishing obtained the blocks and re-issued the prints depicting puppets.

As a warning, due to the overlapping active years of Sadanobu II and III and Sadanobu III and IV, work bearing the Konobu signature is often miss-attributed. 

For a sampling of the work of the first three generations of Sadanobus, see http://kul01.lib.kansai-u.ac.jp/library/etenji/hasegawa/teishin-top.html, which, hopefully, has correctly attributed all the work displayed.

Sample Signatures and Seals of the Artist

小信 Konobu signature and seal

三世小信 Konobu signature and 三世小信  3rd generation Konobu seal

小信 Konobu signature and だのぶ   Konobu seal

小信 Konobu signature and seal

小信 Konobu signature and seal

小信 Konobu signature and seal

小信 Konobu signature and seal

小信画 Konobu ga signature and seal