Author: Hikifuda.
Title: [Gakuyohin ...].
Description: np [191-?]. Colour lithograph 26x38cm. A nice copy. ¶ Presumably this hallucinatory hikifuda dates from around the first world war. At first I feared that the 'clay' of 'clay pigeons' had been lost in translation but these dopey looking young soldiers are concentrating rather than thick or stoned. The young men and animals of Japan are prepared.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. Here, I believe, the products on offer are school supplies.

Keywords: graphic commercial art advertising c20th Japan hikifuda trade catalogues modernism military meiji