{"product_id":"nakou-shoten-7-1820-11-21","title":"Buy More Cigarettes, Japanese Hikifuda Ad","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis colorful Meiji-era hikifuda, or advertising handbill, brings together traditional symbols of good fortune and Japan’s rapidly expanding modern industry. At the center is Ebisu, one of Japan’s Seven Lucky Gods and the deity particularly associated with commerce, prosperity, and successful business. His familiar basket overflows not with fish, but with an extraordinary assortment of matchboxes, while an elegantly dressed bijin in a red kimono looks on. The imagery cleverly transforms a centuries-old symbol of abundance into an advertisement for modern consumer goods.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMatches were a relatively new commodity in Japan, but by the late nineteenth century the country had developed a major match-manufacturing industry, producing enormous quantities for domestic use and export. The boxes pictured here display numerous competing labels and decorative designs, including Western lettering such as “STAR,” reflecting the increasingly international nature of Japanese commerce. Red lanterns, the woman’s traditional dress, and Ebisu himself retain a distinctly Japanese visual vocabulary while the products represent industrialization and expanding global trade.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLike other hikifuda, this piece was created as commercial ephemera rather than fine art intended for long-term preservation. Merchants used colorful, attention-grabbing imagery to associate their businesses with prosperity, modernity, and desirable goods. This surviving example is an especially engaging record of Meiji consumer culture, capturing the moment when traditional Japanese imagery was being enthusiastically repurposed for the new world of advertising, mass production, and international commerce.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize:\u003c\/strong\u003e 9.0\" x 13.25\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eArtist:\u003c\/strong\u003e Kaburaki Kiyokata\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Authentic Vintage Posters","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45333248540787,"sku":"AP8475","price":208.95,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0088\/3005\/8556\/files\/edited_ef083643-fa55-4332-b139-a436c7267c96.jpg?v=1786991557","url":"https:\/\/www.authenticvintageposters.com\/en-nl\/products\/nakou-shoten-7-1820-11-21","provider":"Authentic Vintage Posters","version":"1.0","type":"link"}