13 Japanese tourism posters from the 1930s

[miyakoji]

Here's an interesting link: http://gizmodo.com/13-gorgeous-travel-posters-from-1930s-japan-1533432495

 

Several of these have various 'tetsudou kyoku' names at the bottom.   I don't know what the exact organizational structure was, but these were some kind of divisions or branch offices of Japanese Government Railways, predecessor of JNR.

 

All horizontal writing is right-to-left.  The second poster is sponsored by Governor-General of Korea Railways (not part of JGR, apparently) and the Sendai poster near the bottom shows a lot of older kanji.

[shiawase raichou]

Beautiful and fascinating ... thank you for these.

 

Today's ads mirror them fairly closely. If you ignore the fact that photos have replaced paintings, one can easily imagine a "Climb Hakusan" poster campaign, for example. There's a "Fukushima, land of flowers" campaign running right now on the Yokosuka line and presumably elsewhere. (Much as I wish Fukushima-ken well, it's not going to become known as the land of flowers in our lifetime.)

 

The Mt. Kumgang poster has its own historical interest.

 

I think the Tateyama poster is misrepresented on that website as something else, but no matter.

 

Thank you very much for posting these. They'd be lovely printed well and framed in fours or sixes.

[Densha]

Wow, beautiful!

 

And this is the first time I've heard of a reversed writing order in Japanese....

[miyakoji]

Beautiful and fascinating ... thank you for these.

 

Today's ads mirror them fairly closely. If you ignore the fact that photos have replaced paintings, one can easily imagine a "Climb Hakusan" poster campaign, for example. There's a "Fukushima, land of flowers" campaign running right now on the Yokosuka line and presumably elsewhere. (Much as I wish Fukushima-ken well, it's not going to become known as the land of flowers in our lifetime.)

 

The Mt. Kumgang poster has its own historical interest.

 

I think the Tateyama poster is misrepresented on that website as something else, but no matter.

 

Thank you very much for posting these. They'd be lovely printed well and framed in fours or sixes.

 

Ah, you mean that Tateyama is the name of the place, it's doesn't mean standing on a mountain?  Good catch, I didn't pay much attention to the English writing, so I didn't notice this.  Although, I was getting my wires crossed, I was thinking of Tateyama in Chiba-ken, which is 館山 not 立山.  Off the top of my head, I can't think of a place called Tateyama in the Chubu/Tokai region.

 

Wow, beautiful!

 

And this is the first time I've heard of a reversed writing order in Japanese....

 

Yeah, right-to-left isn't seen too often, but it is out there.  I think I saw it most on temples and shrines.  On the other hand, top to bottom writing isn't difficult to find. and right-to-left ordering of the columns is about as common as left-to-right.  I don't have detailed memory of this , maybe someone else can elaborate.

[kvp]

Beautiful posters. There is even a photograph on the Nara poster.

 

Much as I wish Fukushima-ken well, it's not going to become known as the land of flowers in our lifetime.

Areas without human presence tend to return to their natural flora, so this might turn out to be the case for Fukushima. Not to mention that they only evacuated roughly 36% of the area within the minimal safety radius.

 

Yeah, right-to-left isn't seen too often, but it is out there. I think I saw it most on temples and shrines.

This is similar to the ancient hungarian runic writing (actually it's just a variant of the old assyrian alphabet). It's been officially extinct for over a 1000 years and yet some people still use it, mostly for religious or ornamental purposes. It's also written right to left or top down.

[cteno4]

Miyakoji,

 

spectacular! thanks!

 

these will be going on a tee shirt!

 

jeff

[Kitayama]

Ah, you mean that Tateyama is the name of the place, it's doesn't mean standing on a mountain?  Good catch, I didn't pay much attention to the English writing, so I didn't notice this.  Although, I was getting my wires crossed, I was thinking of Tateyama in Chiba-ken, which is 館山 not 立山.  Off the top of my head, I can't think of a place called Tateyama in the Chubu/Tokai region.

Tateyama is a terminus on Chitetsu in Toyama. A major tourist destination nowadays. Probably also in the 1930's.

[bikkuri bahn]

One of my favorite all-time travel posters, though aimed at foreign visitors rather than domestic:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/36844288@N00/5503492216/in/set-72157618911884888/

 

*left to right reading for horizontal writing was common before the war, presumably to match the same practice for column writing.

[Guest grols]

thanks!

 

They can also be used as a template for their posters.
Or as inspiration to create something. I have been using this poster making software