Hasegawa Sadanobu II (1850 - 1940) Actor in the role of Michizane, Late 1870’s. Chuban.
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This smart chuban print is by the Osaka painter, printer and illustrator Hasegawa Sadanobu II. He was the son of Hasegawa Sadanobu I, and he designed actor prints in the Osaka fashion in very much his father's style. As he found his feet, Sadanobu II became adept at scenes and city views depicting the intermingling of Japanese and foreigners, representative of the wide-spread fascination Western culture typical of the Meiji Restoration. His panoramas of Yokohama scenes of westerners and traders are highly collectible.
This print, with its unashamed use of a red furnace by-product imported from Europe, (so common and ubiquitous that it became known as Meiji red), shouts with confidence. It is a portrait of an actor playing the role of the doomed palace courtier, Michizane. Sadanobu’s fascination with the west is shown in the European style frame around the portrait… Japanese had no history of framing art which was either held loose or in scroll form. A curious detail is the two metal brackets and cloth wedges at the bottom of the print which represent a hanging/propping device for the implied display of the framed print.
Michizane’s life is described below in Henry Joly’s, Legend in Japanese Art, 1908.
SUGAWARA MICHIZANE - also TENJIN SAMA, TEMMANGU, KWANSHOJO. Noble of the ninth century (847-903), deified as God of calligraphy under the above names, and usually represented riding on a black ox, or clasping to his breast a branch of flowering plum tree. He was governor of Sanuki, with the title of Naidaijin under Uda Tenno, who in 898 recommended him to Go Daigo Tenno when he himself abdicated. Michizane was, however, hated of the Fujiwara, and especially of Tokihira (Shihei). Go Daigo took him as his minister, much to the annoyance of Tokihira, and once, when the Chinese Emperor had signified his desire to have a portrait of Go Daigo, who was ill, Tokihira proposed to pose in his place; but Michizane objected that wearing the insignia might be construed as an omen that Tokihira would one day become Emperor, and he directed that the younger brother of Go Daigo, Tokyo Shinno, was the right man to impersonate the monarch. Some time later Tokiyo met in a temple the adopted daughter of Michizane, with whom he fell in love. This gave Tokihira his chance, he accused Michizane of plotting against Go Daigo, and the minister was exiled to Km SHIU with the title of Dazai no gon no sotsu (901). As he started on his exile he cast a last glance to his plum trees in bloom, and composed the following poem:
"When the eastern breeze passes,
load her with perfume,
O blossoms of my plum trees;
even though the master is far away, never forget the spring."
A longer discussion about this print is available on our Wordpress Blog
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A charming print in very good condition, colour and impression fine.
25cm x 18cm.
