Hasegawa Sadanobu III 三代 長谷川貞信 [Konobu III 三代 小信] (1881-1963)
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. 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.
In 1925 he designed 30 prints (divided into 3 collections) showing various types of kumadori or stylized makeup used in kabuki. In 1926 he created thirty-three prints picturing bunraku dolls as part of an eleven volume book titled 大阪文楽座人形画集 日本名物 [Famous Products of Japan: Osaka Bunraku Theatre Dolls, Book of Prints]. The first edition of this collection was issued by 美術社 (Bijutsusha) and later editions were published Hangakai hanmoto and Uchida Publishing.
Sources
Guide to Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: 1900-1975, Helen Merritt, University of Hawaii Press, 1992, p. 28;
The Hotei Encyclopedia of Japanese Woodblock Prints, Amy Reigle Newland, Hotei Publishing Company, 2005, p. 439
The Lavenberg Collection : Hasegawa Sadanobu III [Konobu III]
