How Were World War I Posters Embraced by the Design Community in Pre-war Japan, and How Did They Inspire Japanese Designers?

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  • 戦前期日本のデザイン界における第一次世界大戦ポスターの受容と影響
  • センゼンキ ニホン ノ デザインカイ ニ オケル ダイイチジ セカイ タイセン ポスター ノ ジュヨウ ト エイキョウ

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Abstract

This paper aims to elaborate on how so-called “war posters” created in Europe and America during World War I were embraced by the Japanese design community of that time, and how these posters inspired Japanese designers. 　The first instance of exhibiting war posters in Japan before World War II was “Kokoku Efuda Tenrankai” (Exhibition of Advertising Posters) held at Kobe Commercial College (today’s Kobe University) in October 1916. Twenty exhibitions followed during the years through August 1945. Meanwhile, the first pictorial representation of war posters appeared in the magazine Nihon Insatsu Kai (Japan Printing Industry), Issue 78, published in April 1916; after that, magazine articles often featured illustrations. The primary factor contributing to the nationwide publicity of war posters was, however, the war poster exhibition tour organized by the Asahi Shimbun Company in 1921 in areas where the company produced local editions, followed by the publication of Taisen Posuta Shu (War Posters), a commemorative pictorial record of the exhibition. These two events also had a significant influence on the trend of adaptation from war posters in Japan.　The oldest confirmed example of a war poster adaptation in Japan is an Okabe Printing Office advertisement that appeared in the Kobe Supplement of the Osaka Asahi Shimbun on June 28, 1919. The advertisement was adapted from James Montgomery Flagg’s famous Uncle Sam recruitment poster created in 1917. But the real rise of adaptations did not occur until the publication of War Posters mentioned above. In many cases, war posters were adapted for newspaper ads and picture postcards produced in large quantities rather than for posters, and American posters were used for adaptation more often than European ones, even though experts placed little value on the former.　In summary, the Japanese public had opportunities to view war posters throughout the country from the mid-1910s. These posters were created on the occasion of globally important events that were also of interes to the Japanese, who found something new in the design of the posters. These factors encouraged Japanese graphic designers to enthusiastically adapt war posters for their own productions.

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