Some favourite subjects:
Some favourite subjects:
Hikifuda. Hikifuda of a boy sailor winning a horserace with a crown princess like mother and two other military children cheering. n.p. [190-?]. Colour lithograph 26x37cm. Minor signs of use, quite a good copy. Au$150
An exhilarating conjunction of sport, patriotism and those repulsive chubby infants so popular in the late Meiji period. I don't know what this hikifuda - a small poster or handbill - advertises but it is winning.
Hikifuda. Hikifuda of a ship against the rising sun. n.p. [c1900?]. Colour wood engraving? 26x36cm. Minor signs of use, quite good. Au$200
This handsome ship hikifuda - small poster or handbill - advertises something I can't read. It uses the western technique of wood engraving, a technique that had a brief run in commercial printing between traditional woodcuts and lithography.
Hikifuda Menu. [Banzai Binran]. n.p. [190-?]. Colour lithograph broadside 37x51cm. Minimal signs of use. Au$90
This busy and cheerful Hikifuda - handbill - is an advertisement and a menu, seemingly for all seasons. I'm told what's on offer is side dishes. A typical Hikifuda in that businesses had their own details put in the centre panel. I've traced two images of this handbill, one with a blank centre panel, the other for a different company.
Hikifuda. Benkyo Shoten? [Wayo Zakka Keorimono-rui]. Hikifuda - or handbill - for a sale of Japanese and western wool textiles. n.p. [190-?]. Colour lithograph broadside 38x26cm. A touch browned round the edges. Au$100
An exuberant yet elegant thoroughly up to the minute snapshot of a stylish woman - with her painfully exquisite daughter - graciously acknowledging the attention of the shop boy at a busy warehouse sale of fabrics.
Hikifuda. [Shinshu Matsumoto Higashimachi Uetei]. n.p. [c1900?]. Woodcut broadside 28x24cm. A nice copy. Au$100
An intriguing and to me mysterious handbill from Matsumoto - a city in the Nagano prefecture in central Honshu. It seems clear it offers - in some rustic, or perhaps reverse way - what the well dressed man needs. Superior quality is promised but I'm stumped by all those series of numbers. They don't make sense as measurements to me.
Specimen Hikifuda. ? [Yorozu to Kanbutsu Sato Sekiyu ...] n.p. [c1900?]. Colour woodcut 26x38cm. Rumpled with a couple of small repairs to the edges; quite decent. Stab holes in the right margin showing it was once in an album. Au$200
A bustling handsome print produced for merchants of imported goods. These hikifuda - small posters or handbills - were usually produced with the text panel blank. The customer had their own details over printed. In some cases, like this, samples were were produced with generic text to show the finished product.
Tricycle advertisement. Advertising leaflet for a new American children's bicycle. Osaka? c1900. 19x33cm, printed in blue on brown paper. Rumpled, chipped and sometime laid down. Au$60
As always, if someone complains about the condition my reply is, "Go find a better copy." And it is called a bicycle (jitensha) rather than tricycle (sanrinsha). Agents in other cities are named but headquarters are in Osaka with the phone number 1837. An expert in Japanese phone numbers might be able to tell us when the number 1837 was reached, giving us the earliest possible date for this.
Hikifuda. [Natori-gawa Shoyu Hatsubai-Moto]. n.p. [190-?]. Colour lithograph 52x39cm. A bit creased or rumpled with a couple of closed marginal tears; a pretty good copy. Au$250
I presumed this exquisite modern young woman was advertising kimono silk and perhaps she does in other examples of this advertising handbill cum poster. These things were usually produced with a blank space for a business to print, sometimes write in, their products and details. Here, she is advertising a Natori-gawa soy sauce distributor. Natori-gawa is the river near Sendai in north east Honshu.
Boer War paper game. SCHLETTE, E.G. Boer-en Rooinekspel. Amsterdam, Koster [190-?]. 56x79cm colour lithograph. Creasing and a couple of short tears repaired in the margin. Au$150
A bright and cheery racing game.
Hikifuda : : Kakkoku taii no yuko hosho-yaku? Hyakudokukudashi : Wajanyu]. c1900? 40x50cm colour woodcut. Au$150
A singular and baffling, to me, handbill or hikifuda for a patent medicine for women that expelled a hundred poisons and cured ailments that any woman was likely to suffer.
It's the villain in the corner that stumps me. Since I can't read the text I have no idea who he is nor what he is doing. My first guess is that he is threatening to tie the young woman to the railroad tracks but I'm sure this predates any American film serials that could have arrived in Japan. So is he a traditional stage villain or does he do something else in Japan? Surely he isn't one of the many great foreign doctors who guarantee Wajanyu or Heshun Tang, which seems to be a traditional Chinese medicine. But ... he is ordering her and us to pay attention.
According to Ernest Clement, in a 1907 article on medical folk-lore in Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, in 1896, in Tokyo alone, there were 1401 registered inventors of patent medicines, 5145 vendors, 42,533 quack doctors and 5137 qualified medicos.
Specimen hikifuda. Hikifuda of a modern couple in an elaborate cockerell balloon basket above an exposition or fair; the brash young woman waving a Japanese flag. n.p. [190-?]. 36x25cm colour lithograph. Browning but pretty good. Au$300
Such overtly enthusiastic and active women are not so common in Japanese pictures. The navy ships in the bay make me think this marks one of Japan's victories - the 1904 war with Russia or the 1894 win against China. The fashions push the date back but Hikifuda artists didn't always worry about such details unless the target was fashion.
Hikifuda - small posters or handbills - were usually produced with the text panel blank. The customer, usually a retailer, had their own details over printed, so the same image might sell fine silk or soy sauce.
Hikifuda specimen book. A publisher's sample book of specimen hikifuda. n.p. (Osaka?) 190-? 26x39cm; later makeshift card binding that appears to be from a printer; 76 colour lithographs. Definite signs of use, occasional tears but nothing too serious. Au$2750
These are rare. Specimen hikifuda do float around but this is because busy fingers have dismembered every sample book they can find. Here series and numbers are stamped on the back but are not consistent; still I found only three places where offsetting shows that a sample is missing, including the first plate.
Hikifuda - small posters or handbills - were usually produced with the text panel blank. The customer, usually a retailer, had their own details over printed, so the same image might sell fine silk or soy sauce.
From what I can see, if you wanted fine, delicate printing you went to Kyoto; if you wanted commercial publishing on a huge scale you went to Tokyo; and if you wanted brash, vivid to the point of lurid, advertising you went to Osaka. This particular set is marked by the bold and busy colours, strongly marked borders, ornate design and occasional extra embossing. More expensive series than standard? I would have guessed most to be earlier but I found two dates: 1911 and 1915, and the aeroplanes are a give away.
Hikifuda. ... ... ... [Niimura Shoten ... Shimosuwa Kinoshita ... Wayo Orimonosho ...]. n.p. [1900]. Colour woodcut 26x38cm. Minor stain, really only noticeable in the bottom margin. Au$250
This smart hikifuda - large handbill or small poster - advertises, I think, the Shimosuwa department store Niimura Shoten where they sell Japanese and western textiles. Shimosuwa is a town in Nagano, east of Tokyo. There are Niimura department stores still in a few towns around Japan but I suspect that it is a common name; it translates more or less as 'New Town'. This is also a tribute to modern transport and a helpful train (and ferry?) timetable for 1900 is provided.
Specimen Hikifuda. A large hikifuda - handbill - or modest poster for Kyoto haberdashery bargain sales. n.p. [Osaka c1902]. Colour lithograph 37x26cm. An outstanding copy. Au$450
This splendidly flamboyant and assertive modern young Japanese woman is unlike any other I've seen from this period. Being able to decipher phrases like "bargain sale" but unable to decipher the trademark or any particular merchant's name here I suspect this is a sample produced by or for Kyoto silk merchants and haberdashers. Being on much heavier paper than usual for hikifuda clinches the matter for me.
Hikifuda specimen book. [Hikifuda Mihon Jo]. Osaka c1902. 25x37cm original string tied wrappers, title label; 60 colour lithographs. Some minor signs of use, stains and blotches; a remarkably good copy. Au$5100
Now this is rare. Specimen hikifuda do float around but this is because busy fingers have dismembered every sample book they can find. I knew they once existed because I've had a few individuals, each time noting the stab holes in the margin with some indignant grief. This is complete as issued.
Hikifuda - small posters or handbills - were usually produced with the text panel blank. The customer, usually a retailer, had their own details over printed, so the same image might sell fine silk or soy sauce. The colophons that have survived the trimmer in this book date between 1899 and 1902. Each hikifuda is numbered on the back but not in any sequence. I haven't deciphered a printer's name in the colophons but I'm sure someone literate can.
From what I can see, if you wanted fine, delicate printing you went to Kyoto; if you wanted commercial publishing on a huge scale you went to Tokyo; and if you wanted brash, vivid to the point of lurid, advertising you went to Osaka. I hope other printer's albums of Osaka advertising art have and will survive the breakers but I won't be holding my breath for the next one.
The splendidly flamboyant and assertive modern young woman in stripes toward the end of the album is unlike any other I've seen from this period. A special copy (on heavier paper) of that was my first hikifuda purchase and is still my favourite. And since this album has just doubled the number I've handled, that's saying something. Another shows a hardworking young couple with the main caption 'Shiobara Tasuke' - who was a rags to riches merchant of the 18th and early 19th century. This makes sense but doesn't explain why the cheerful young woman is about to blithely put a cleaver through her kimono and/or arm while the falcon and the naval artist does explain why Japan has such a tradition of impossible bird's-eye views. There's stuff to learn here.
Catalogue - printed photograph mounts. Asanuma Shokai. [Shashin Daishi Teika-hyo]. n.p. Asanuma Shokai 1903 (Meiji 36). 18x23cm publisher's decorated wrapper; [8]pp and 12 pages of illustrated examples in various monochromes. A nice copy. Au$500
A mountain of printed and most decorative mounts for studio photographs were produced but this is the first catalogue of them I've seen. Most of these appear to be actual examples produced for photographers in Japan, Hong Kong, China and maybe Manchuria - judging by the Russian type. As an example of maybe a dim corner of photographic history - I don't know enough to judge - this is pretty good, but as an example of a dark corner of graphic design and commercial printing this is fabulous.
The last plate is an array of decorative borders.
Hikifuda. [Kisha Seki Suiriku Nimotsu Unso Toriatsukaijo]. n.p. [c1904]. Colour lithograph 37x52cm. Old folds. Au$300
Freudians, symbolists and students of gay innuendo of the last century, eat your hearts out. Our artist beat you to every punch by years. The train may have left the cannon but the banner and torpedo suggest that another could be along soon.
This patriotic hikifuda - large handbill or small poster - advertising a transport company must date to the Russo-Japanese war.
Advertising. Hudson's Household Removals. Hudson's Household Removals. Fire Proof Depositories. London, the company [1904]. Quarto publisher's colour illustrated boards; 16 leaves of blotting paper with Hudson's heading etc printed on both sides. The text inside the covers and on the blotter pages is in French. Calendar for 1905 inside the back cover. Au$100
A splendid bit of futuristic international marketing with a view of one of their coming airships wafting a van over the London skyline; 1904 was a good time for powered airships. It's a quibble that the motor, indeed a pilot, for Hudson's airship is invisible but what is odd is that the Hudson van, identical to the vans on the back cover, is still horse powered. Included inside the back cover are letters of approbation from royal and aristocratic clients, from the Empress Eugenie in 1894 to Baron von Stael in 1903.
Hikifuda & Sugoroku. [Nichiro Kinen Sugoroku]. n.p. [1905?]. Colour lithograph 26x37cm. A bit smudged and rumpled, pretty good. Au$300
I have seen a few hikifuda made as sugoroku but they have been staid affairs featuring birds, flowers and graceful women in flowing kimonos. This exuberant advertisement game celebrates the Russo-Japanese war victory.
These hikifuda - small posters or handbills - were usually produced with the text panel blank. The customer, usually a retailer, had their own details over printed.
Hikifuda. Nakayama. Club Washing Powder ... highly perfumed by violet essence, white rose, musk and Jockey Club Essence ... n.p. [Kobe?], Nakayama Taiyodo [1906?]. Broadside 35x34cm printed rainbow in red, green and purple on crepe (chirimen). Old folds, a couple of small holes in a fold, pretty good. Au$150
What the hell is Jockey Club Essence? Never mind. Fin-de-siecle belles printed in rainbow on crepe; what more could you ask for? Nakayama founded his cosmetics company in Kobe in 1903, changed the name to Club in 1905 and launched Club Washing Powder in 1906. It became Club Cream in 1911. This hikifuda matches the Nakayama advertising of 1906 on the company's website. The trademark twins are apparently a portrait of Namiko, wife of Maeda Toshinari.
By 1939 Nakayama was a member of the house of peers or lords and is now the hero of a recent novel; the title translates as "King of Cosmetics". Look out for the Takarazuka Revue musical and the mini-series.
Hikifuda. [Wata Neru Zakka-Sho]. 1906 (Meiji 39). Colour lithograph 38x26cm. Au$135
I'm sure this insufferable couple are appalled to find they are advertising cotton, nails and general merchandise. I suspect that picture behind them is the view through their stateroom window. They must have thought they would showcase luxury travel and travel goods.
Hikifuda - small posters or handbills - were usually produced with the text panel blank. The customer, usually a retailer, had their own details over printed, so the same image might sell fine silk or soy sauce.
Advertising ABC. Kryolith. Kryolith Kids Alphabet. Pennsylvania Salt Manufacturing Co [Chicago printed]. 1907. 21x18cm colour illustrated publisher's wrapper; 28pp, colour illustrations throughout by Art Williamson. A short tear in the bottom edge of one leaf, minimal signs of use, rather good. Au$300
A charming ABC extolling Kryolith - made into lye, caustic soda, sold as Lewis Lye - and the multitude of ways it makes life easier, healthier, more beautiful. Cryolite seems to have come from one source, a deposit on the Greenland coast which, once that lode was turned into lye or used in the production of aluminium, pretty much vanished from our lives.
Hikifuda. [Tsuchiya Rikujiro]. Osaka 1907 (Meiji 40). 26x38cm colour lithograph. A nice copy. Au$100
You'd think this smug gang of dandies - the seven lucky gods - would be advertising fashion but they are peddling some sort of pharmaceuticals made by Tsuchiya Rikujiro out of Tsukobo in the Okayama area. The drug trade is treating them well.
Hikifuda - small posters or handbills often handed out as seasonal gifts - were usually produced with the text panel blank. The customer, usually a retailer, had their own details over printed, so the same image might sell fine silk or soy sauce.
Hikifuda. Tsumura Juntendo. - [Chujo Yu - Herupu]. [Tokyo? 1908-09]. Colour lithograph 265x375mm. Old vertical folds, stabholes in the right margin and tips clipped from the left corners indicating it was once part of an album. A pretty good copy. Au$225
Tsumura Juntendo - still in business - began selling herbal remedies in Tokyo in the 1890s and 'Help' - Tsumura's herbal wonder cure for women - went on the market in 1907. This handsome hikifuda - handbill or poster - includes a calendar for 1909.
Aviation Game. Helder's Vlieg-Spel. Zwolle, Helder's Biscuits [1909?]. 44x64cm colour litho game on paper. Folded and a touch rumpled; rather good. With a list of the biscuit range down the right side. Au$450
A splendid race game featuring plenty of bumps, crashes and engine failures and the earliest forms of the monoplane. Did the monoplane in the centre panel exist?
1909 was the big year for air shows and game makers weren't slow so 1909 is a sensible date to put on this. I can find only one record of another copy of this - in the Seville collection - and this, he said humbly, is a much better copy.
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