Oda Hironobu was an artist who designed a small number of shin-hanga landscapes during the 1930s. Little is known about Hironobu's life and his woodblock prints are rarely found for sale. Apparently he worked with a publisher named Maeba, although another source states that his prints were published by Nishinomiya as early as 1924. Some of his prints are included in the renowned Robert O. Muller collection of 20th century Japanese prints, now belonging to the Smithsonian.Hironobu's prints were originally made in limited editions of 500 and were stamped with an oval publisher's seal in the lower margin. This publisher's seal reads Maeba han, or "Maeba print". It is speculated that some of Hironobu's designs were recarved and reprinted during the 1950s by the publisher Baba Nobuhiko. At least one design, Nanso Kushiyama, has been found with the seals of Baba Nobuhiko. It is difficult to detect the recarving in this print, as it appears almost identical to the original print, but there are some subtle differences in the details of the ground and water. |