This design comes from an untitled Japanese picture postcard, originally color lithograph with ink on card stock, which was likely produced around 1906. The postcard represents a mood of political disillusionment after the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). I have carefully redrawn, recolored, and refinished this work of art by hand in order to preserve this interesting piece of history.
Although not directly referenced by the postcard, the general mood and theme of the postcard line up with the public reaction to the Treaty of Portsmouth ending the war: although Japan had won major victories, many Japanese felt the settlement was humiliating because it did not include the indemnity and spoils they expected, and that anger helped trigger protests and the Hibiya riots in 1905.
This postcard belongs to the first great age of the Japanese picture postcard. In Japan, privately produced postcards were authorized in 1900, and the new medium expanded rapidly as printing technology, postal circulation, and consumer visual culture developed together.
The text reads: “Ah, have we been sold out?! Ah, have we been deceived?!”
Keep in mind that all posters are shipped separately from other items due to the necessity of shipping in a rolled poster tube in order to prevent bending or damage to the poster while in transit.
Artwork is fit to paper size to allow for proper framing without cropping the edges of design, however, we cannot guarantee that every possible frame (especially those with mats or large moulding) will not crop the edges of the artwork, due to the wide variety of frames on the market.
• Unframed and ready for framing
• Shipped in rolled poster tube to prevent bending in transit
• Museum-grade archival matte paper
• Paper thickness: 10.3 mil
• Paper weight: 189 g/m²
• Opacity: 94%
• ISO brightness: 104%