Sadanobu (1809 - 1879 )
Sadanobu commenced his artistic career as the student of Shijo painter Kocho Ueda, yet turned to printmaking and the tutelage of Sadamasu in the 1830s. He later studied with Kunimasu and by 1840, Sadanobu was an active Osaka artist. Completing his first work 1836, Sadanobu produced chuban (half-size) bust portraits and multi-sheet prints of Kabuki actors. In 1843, he was adopted into the family of Kihei Tenmaya, the owner of the Tenki publishing firm. This arrangement was short lived, and Sadanobu left the family in 1844.
While successful in the yakusha-e (actor prints) genre, after 1848 Sadanobu focused on meisho-e (famous place pictures) depicting his native Osaka. He worked largely with the publisher Wataki, echoing Hiroshige’s distinct style and composition. Sadanobu also enjoyed a lasting relationship with Hirosada, and it is possible that used some of his drawings for designs around 1850. Though Sadanobu passed away in 1879, his descendants carried his legacy well into the 20th century, with Sadanobu V acting as head of the school in the 1970s.
Japanese Woodblock Prints (1800 - 1868)
By the 19th century, Japanese woodblock prints achieved extraordinary popularity. While the shogunate issued a battery of censorship reforms throughout the 1800s, artists ignored and evaded restrictions with images of indulgent beauties and vibrant kabuki actors. As constraints tightened in the 1840s, bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful women) became earthier in prints by Eizan and Eisen, while kabuki actors persevered in the work of Kunisada (aka Toyokuni III). During this period, ukiyo-e artists also added landscapes, warriors, ghosts and scenes of everyday life to their oeuvre. Artists such as Hokusai and Hiroshige indulged a national wanderlust through Meisho-e or “famous place pictures,” while Kuniyoshi championed musha-e, a genre of warrior and legendary pictures.
