Hikifuda (40 results)

Condition: very good. Tokyo [c1910?]. Colour lithograph broadsheet 18x19cm. Illustration on one side, text in blue on the other. An old crease. Small but chic. Is the young dandy wanting the stylish but undeniably bourgeois family to move on or is that merely a dandy's customary expression of disdain?

Condition: very good. n.p. [190-?]. Colour lithograph broadside 37x51cm. Minimal signs of use. 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.

Condition: very good. Tokyo? Iwaya c1890? 27x38cm illustrated lithograph. Folded and frayed around the edges; pretty decent. Iwaya Matsuhei was a promoter's promoter. After a few false starts - the odd incendiary rebellion, lawsuit and bankruptcy - he got into tobacco in the 1880s. Importing and learning from American companies like Kimball and manufacturing his own Tengu cigarettes from about 1884. He was soon a flamboyant plutocrat about town, bannering how much tax he paid and how many charity workers he supported (a lot). Soon came the great Tobacco Advertising War between Iwaya and his rival Murai Kichibei.This restrained hikifuda, which features more of Iwaya's imports than his own brands must come early in the history. Shotengu - small Tengu - was only one of a panoply of Tengu cigarettes - large Tengu, medium, gold Tengu, silver Tengu . through to happy nation Tengu.

Condition: very good. Osaka 1907 (Meiji 40). 26x38cm colour lithograph. A nice copy. 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.

Condition: very good. Osaka 1891 (Meiji 24). Colour woodcut 38x26cm. Two horizontal folds, a nice copy. An example of a somewhat western aesthetic style (ie inspired by Japan) applied to the authoritive detail of a currency note or share certificate. In other words, here is a company or product to be trusted. Absolutely.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.Yamaishihara is an area south west of Osaka and the timetable is for 1892. The rest is up to you.

Condition: very good. n.p. [c1900?]. Woodcut broadside 28x24cm. A nice copy. 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.

Condition: very good. n.p. [190-?]. Colour lithograph broadside 38x26cm. A touch browned round the edges. 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.

Condition: very good. n.p. [c1910?]. 26x38cm colour woodcut. Margins browned. I don't know what Takahashiya sold, I'm sorry, but I can tell you that Taromaru is in Toyama and that this patriotic hikifuda celebrates the royal family who in turn celebrate Japan taking to the air. That's the crown prince, soon to be emperor Taisho and some family: wife and presumably his oldest child, Hirohito.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, so the same image might sell fine silk or soy sauce.

Condition: very good. n.p. [1931]. colour broadside 53x38cm. Folded, with stab holes indicating it was once in an album. A vivid and heart warming portrait of the urban well-to-do and the rewards of being well-to-do: modernity and shopping. It can be seen as mother daughter life lessons. Many such images in Japan are moral lessons, showing girls and young women their compensation for being good.These hikifuda - small posters or handbills - were usually produced with a blank text panel. The customer, usually a retailer, had their own details over printed. The handy calendar is for 1932.

Condition: very good. 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.

Condition: very good. 1906 (Meiji 39). Colour lithograph 38x26cm. 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.

Condition: very good. n.p. [c1900] 26x38cm colour woodcut. Small knick from a top corner; a nice copy. Bustling modern Japan is celebrated in this advertisement for the Japanese and western liquor merchants Goto Shokai. I presume it's the trademarks of the brands they handle that are displayed.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, so the same image might sell fine silk or soy sauce.

Condition: very good. n.p. [192-?]. Colour lithograph 26x38cm. A bit creased, stab holes on the right indicating it was once in an album. A printed code number on the back. A glamorous pair of Taisho women doing what urban Japanese did best: throng the busy exciting streets and shop. These hikifuda - handbills or small advertising posters - were often produced with blank frames for customers to have their own wares and business details printed over. I'd guess this was aimed at the fashion industry.

Condition: very good. n.p. n.d. [c1880 to 1900?]. Colour woodcut 24x30cm. Rumpled with an old vertical fold. From what I can figure out - which is not much with my complete illiteracy when it comes to handwritten text - this advertises a Fukuoka bookshop that stocks Japanese, Chinese and Western books. The westerner is the fat bastard sitting down. That red labelled tube holds Japanese school charts.Hikifuda are large handbills or small posters, often handed out as gifts for special occasions. Later they were mass produced with the details left blank for the merchant to fill in and the same image could advertise any number of things. Not so in this case.

Condition: very good. np [190-?]. Colour lithograph 25x37cm. Pretty good. An almost average street scene in late Meiji Japan but: without the telegraph poles and power lines, bowler hats and cyclist it could be a street scene generations earlier. 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. This one, from a Nishinomiya (between Osaka and Kobe) dealer, indeed sells soy sauce, salt, sake and charcoal - tradition kept alive in the modern world.

Condition: very good. c1900? 40x50cm colour woodcut. 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.

Condition: very good. 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. 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.

Condition: very good. n.p. [190-?]. Colour lithograph 26x37cm. Minor signs of use, quite a good copy. 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.

Condition: very good. n.p. [192-?]. Colour lithograph 26x38cm. A bit rumpled, stab holes on the right indicating it was once in an album. A printed code number on the back. The vivid and exciting world of groceries beautifully depicted. These hikifuda - handbills or small advertising posters - were often produced with blank frames for customers to have their own wares and business details printed over.

Condition: very good. n.p.[190-?]. Colour woodcut 37x26cm. A small blotch in the upper right side, a nice copy. An undeciphered by me hikifuda - large handbill or small poster - featuring some nautical celebration.

Condition: very good. n.p. [187-?]. 36x49cm colour woodcut. Bug chewed and carefully repaired, either some time ago or done using old paper. This large and still quite handsome steamship advertises ships, routes and fares from Fushikiminato, now part of Takaoka City. Takaoka Museum illustrates their copy online and it is just as chomped as this one.

Condition: very good. n.p.n.d. (1914). Colour lithograph 53x38cm. Stab holes in the top margin, catalogue number on the back, showing it was once in a specimen book. Folded rather than creased. That woman and child are modelled on the crown princess and her first son - Hirohito - as they were a few years before. She is adventurous enough to go skylarking but still the boy must drive. Around and below are most of the things that make Japan Japan - cherry blossoms, industry and Fuji.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. This one is double the standard size; the timetable or calendar is for 1915.

Condition: very good. n.p. [190-?]. 26x38cm colour woodcut. I guess that if a strapping sumo wrestler chooses to wear your shoes you know they must be sturdy. I guess the pint-size deity dancing on hs arm is a fukusuke but I don't get the connection, the significance of the hat, and neither do I know who he - the wrestler - is. I suspect that this is a celebrity portrait rather than a generic figure and I bet someone out there can identify both of them.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, so the same image might sell fine silk or soy sauce. That doesn't apply here.

Condition: very good. n.p. [1911]. Colour lithograph and woodcut 52x38cm. Stab holes in the margin show it was once in an album. Horizontal fold; quite good. The picture is lithographed, the calendar woodcut. An extra psychedelic extravaganza in experimental colour showing lucky god Ebisu being chauffered by Daikokuten. These two did embrace modernity and had very good tailors as can be seen when the occasion demanded a smart suit or an even more smart uniform. Here they haven't dressed; it's just two friends on an outing. Maybe a joyride. I wonder whether it was good luck to have these two snaffle your car. 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. The handy calendar is for 1912.

Condition: very good. n.p. [c1900?]. Colour wood engraving? 26x36cm. Minor signs of use, quite good. 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.

Condition: very good. 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. 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.

Condition: very good. [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. 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.

Condition: very good. 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.

Condition: very good. n.p. [190-?]. Colour lithograph 52x39cm. A bit creased or rumpled with a couple of closed marginal tears; a pretty good copy. 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.

Condition: very good. n.p. [190-?]. 36x25cm colour lithograph. Browning but pretty good. 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.