Author: Hikifuda.
Title: [Niimura Shoten ... Shimosuwa Kinoshita ... Wayo Orimonosho ...].
Description: n.p. [1900]. Colour woodcut 26x38cm. Minor stain, really only noticeable in the bottom margin. ¶ 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.

Keywords: graphic art advertising hikifuda Japan c20th modernism fashion costume transport trains