About this Item
A vibrant collection, containing pre-war matchbox labels produced by the Rinshikin Shukai, Japan's first society for matchbox collectors. The boldly coloured designs show kabuki actors, geisha, Buddhist deities, baseball players, famous ukiyo-e prints, vistas of capital cities, and even wartime propaganda. Matchbox labels became popular in the late-19th and early-20th centuries in Japan as an opportunity for striking and individualistic graphic design. This album opens with 100 labels on untrimmed sheets, each one submitted by an individual member of the Rinshikin Shukai. The labels are then divided into sets, usually of 12 as per traditional Japanese artistic conventions. Many are after famous prints by the likes of Kitagawa Utamaro and Sharaku but the majority are fresh designs. One charming set is titled "Sports in the Afterlife", showing silver skeletons playing a variety of sports. The wartime labels are particularly striking, showing cartoon soldiers firing missiles, piloting aircraft, and wading through rivers. One set commemorates the "Three Brave Bombers", a group of soldiers who were lionized for breaking through the Chinese lines during the Shanghai Incident and setting off suicide bombs to allow the Japanese army to advance. The Rinshin Shukai was formed in 1903 by Fukuyama Hekisui (1876-1934) as a society for those interested in collecting, designing, and distributing matchbox labels. It quickly grew in popularity as branches were established all over Japan, and in 1907 it held a sponsored display at the Tokyo Industrial Exhibition where thousands of labels designed by Hekisui were given out. Over the following 30 years Hekisui's personal collection grew to exceed 200,000 examples, designed by prominent members such as Furuya Rankei, Hasegawa Giichiro, Ogawa Saku, and Oda Shuichi. Upon his death in 1934 the society produced a commemorative label which is pasted at the front of this album. Quarto, concertina-style. With 1,323 colour woodblock matchbox labels (60 x 42 mm to 117 x 78 mm, 100 on tipped-in and untrimmed sheets, 2 loosely inserted), 10 letterpress labels, mounted on recto and verso of 26 leaves (2 sides blank); many printed on mica-speckled paper, text in Japanese. Original brown thick card boards, original manuscript paper label on front board. Labels bright, a couple with loss, a few seemingly missing, boards rubbed, 2 joints repaired with Japanese tissue: a well-preserved collection.
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