Hishikawa Haranobu

Hishikawa Harunobu 菱川春宣 (active 1875-1891)

BIOGRAPHY

Possibly a member of the Hishikawa school founded by Hishikawa Moronobu (1618-1694), no information seems to exist about this artist, other than he created a number of sumo prints and one triptych picturing Momotaro, the legendary Peach Boy, as shown below. The Romanization of his given name varies and at the suggestion of Maribeth Graybill, The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Curator of Asian Artt at the Portland Art Museum, I have used Harunobu [ハルノブ], which is how the website of the Chiba City Museum of Art shows his name. Other Romanizations of his name include Hishikawa Syunsen, Hishikawa Shunsen and Hishikawa Harusen.

The artist worked for several publishers including Matsuki Heikichi, the publisher of this collection's print, Table of Contents for the series Instructive Models of Lofty Ambition. He designed at least one sumo print for Heikichi.

A Few of the Artist's Works