Author: Tokyo.
Title: [Tokyo Meisho Manseibashi Hirose Chuza Dozo?].
Description: Tokyo 1914 (Taisho 3). Colour lithograph 27x40cm. A blotch in the top margin, a bit rumpled and used; pretty good. ¶ The statue of Hirose Takeo - Russo-Japanese War hero - was erected in 1910 and in 1914 the monumental pile of Manseibashi station - opened in 1912 - should be right behind him. It would spoil the composition of this view so it has understandably been omitted. Once the eyes stop watering these acid trip views of late Meiji and Taisho Japan start to make sense. They may have started as a cynical grab at attention for cheap, often nasty, prints but after a while they become a celebration of being in a place and time so exciting that no portrait can be too brightly, too impossibly, coloured. Photographs may be in some way a more reliable record but no photographer could gather the cast of characters - and the characters include trams and motor cars and the latest fashions - and arrange them to so capture the thrill of being out and about in Tokyo on a Taisho afternoon.

Keywords: graphic art posters c20th Japan Tokyo fashion