Born 1903 in Edobori (Osaka), Hanaya graduated from Sakai Middle School in 1919. In 1920, he decided to become a photographer. Five years later in 1925, he traveled to Shanghai, and later to Hong Kong and Singapore. In 1929, at the age of 26, he opened a photography supply store in Ashiya (Hyogo Prefecture). Around the same time, he changed his name from his birth name Kazuo Kuwata to Kanbei Hanaya.

Hanaya in 1930 founded the Camera Club of Ashiya, and in 1939 submitted his photographic works to the Kokugakai Exhibition. In 1948, Hanaya participated in the founding of the Ashiya Art Association. In 1956, he became a member of the Kokugakai Association. He received the Hyogo Cultural Award in 1977 and with the Award of the Photographic Society of Japan and the Cultural Merit Award in 1986. He died in 1991.