Haruko Hasegawa

{{Short description|Japanese painter (1895–1967)}}{{Eastern name order|Hasegawa Haruko}}{{Infobox person

| name = Haruko Hasegawa

| image = Hasegawa Haruko.JPG

| native_name = 長谷川春子

| native_name_lang = ja

| other_names = Hasegawa Haruko

| birth_date = February 28, 1895

| birth_place = Tokyo, Japan

| death_date = May 7, 1967

| death_place = Tokyo, Japan

| occupation = Painter, illustrator, writer

| years_active = 1929–1967

| relatives = Shigure Hasegawa (sister)

}}

Haruko Hasegawa ({{Langx|ja|長谷川春子}}; 1895 – 1967) was a Japanese painter, illustrator, and writer.{{Cite web |date=October 31, 2011 |title=Hasegawa, Haruko |url=https://www.oxfordartonline.com/benezit/display/10.1093/benz/9780199773787.001.0001/acref-9780199773787-e-00084343 |url-access=subscription |access-date=2025-01-05 |website=Benezit Dictionary of Artists |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.b00084343}} She was known for Yōga (Western-style Japanese painting) war painting, and was a member of the Kokugakai arts organization.{{Cite web |title=長谷川春子 :: 東文研アーカイブデータベース |trans-title=Haruko Hasegawa |url=https://www.tobunken.go.jp/materials/bukko/9181.html |access-date=2025-01-05 |website=Tobunken.go.jp (National Institute for Cultural Heritage, Tokyo)}} Hasegawa visited war zones in the 1930s and 1940s, to highlight Japanese armed forces and patriotism in both her illustrations and writings.{{Cite web |title=Haruko Hasegawa |url=https://awarewomenartists.com/en/artiste/haruko-hasegawa/ |access-date=2025-01-05 |website=AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes |language=en-US}}{{Cite journal |date=December 2010 |title=What Japanese Women Artists Painted during the WWII— the Paintings by Hasegawa Haruko and Other Japanese Women Painters |url=http://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/landing/article.kci?arti_id=ART001504963 |journal=Journal of History of Modern Art |language=en |volume= |issue=28 |pages=231–277 |doi=10.17057/kahoma.2010..28.008 |issn=1598-7728 |last1=고카츠 레이코 |url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last=Zhang |first=Ya |date=June 30, 2023 |title=French Indochina as Seen from the Representations of Women Writers in the 1940s：Focusing on the Cooperative Relations between the Empire of France and Japan |journal=Border Crossings: The Journal of Japanese-Language Literature Studies |language=English |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=37–57 |doi=10.22628/bcjjl.2023.16.1.37 |issn=2383-5222|doi-access=free }}

Early life and education

Haruko Hasegawa was born on February 28, 1895, in Tokyo. Her mother came from a hatamoto family, while her father practiced law, and he was one of the first in Japan to do so in a modern manner.{{Cite journal |last=Hartley |first=Barbara |date=July 2, 2013 |title=The Space of Childhood Memories: Hasegawa Shigure and Old Nihonbashi |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09555803.2013.804109 |journal=Japan Forum |volume=25 |issue=3 |pages=314–330 |doi=10.1080/09555803.2013.804109 |issn=0955-5803 |via=Taylor & Francis|url-access=subscription }} Her older sister was Shigure Hasegawa. She graduated from the {{III|Futaba Junior and Senior High School|ja|雙葉中学校・高等学校}}.

Hasegawa was student of Kiyokata Kaburagi (1878–1972), a master of the ukiyo-e school.

Career

Her artwork was first exhibited in 1928 in Tokyo. She worked as an illustrator for Nyonin Geijutsu (1928–1932), the Japanese women's literary journal founded by her older sister.{{Cite journal |last=Coutts |first=Angela |date=January 2012 |title=Imagining Radical Women in Interwar Japan: Leftist and Feminist Perspectives |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/661713?journalCode=signs |journal=Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society |volume=37 |issue=2 |pages=325–355 |doi=10.1086/661713 |issn=0097-9740 |url-access=subscription |via=The University of Chicago Press}}{{Cite web |last=Kira |first=Tomoko |date=July 6, 2024 |title=The sisters Shigure and Haruko Hasegawa, and Women's Art magazine |url=https://awarewomenartists.com/en/magazine/les-soeurs-shigure-et-haruko-hasegawa-et-la-revue-nyonin-geijutsu/ |access-date=2025-01-05 |website=AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes |language=en-US}}

Hasegawa travelled to France in 1929, and held solo exhibitions at Zac Gallery in Paris that year and the following year. When she returned to Japan in 1931, she exhibited her artwork at the Kokugakai exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, and became a member of the arts organization in 1932.

During the Manchurian Incident and the Second Sino-Japanese War, she served on the front lines as a correspondent.{{Citation |first= |title=画論 (9月號)(25) |date=September 1943 |volume=25 |publisher=造形芸術社 |trans-title=Art Theory (September issue) (25) |url=https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/1536771 |access-date=2025-01-05 |language=ja |doi=10.11501/1536771}}{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.nhk.jp/p/etv21c/ts/M2ZWLQ6RQP/episode/te/Q2MLZW2G9R/ |title=「女たちの戦争画」 - ETV特集 |date=August 27, 2022 |last=日本放送協会 |language=ja |trans-title="Women's War Paintings", ETV Special |access-date=2025-01-05 |via=www.nhk.jp}} In 1939, Hasegawa was the only female founding member of the "Army Art Association" ({{Langx|ja|陸軍芸術協会|Rikugun Bijitsu Kyōkai}}).{{Cite book |last=Kaneko |first=Maki |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YCYiDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA18 |title=Mirroring the Japanese Empire: The Male Figure in Yōga Painting, 1930–1950 |date=2016-04-26 |publisher=Brill Publishers |isbn=978-90-04-28259-9 |pages=18 |language=en |via=Google Books}} In February 1943, Hasegawa was among the founding members of the "Women Artists Service Corp." ({{Langx|ja|女流美術家奉公隊|Jōryū Bijutsuka Hōkōtai}}), a paramilitary organization sponsored by the Imperial Japanese Army to engage women in patriotic activities. When World War II ended, Hasegawa was ostracized in Japanese painting circles as a result of her work during the war.

A few years before her death, she illustrated The Tale of Genji. She died on May 7, 1967, in Ota Ward, Tokyo.