Hikifuda. - Hikifuda with lucky gods Ebisu and Daikokuten on the telephone.

n.p. [Osaka? 189-?] Colour woodcut 26x38cm. A crooked fold and a few small marks; quite good and bright. ¶ Ebisu and Daikokuten did embrace modernity - or rather, wanted to play with every new gadget and fashion - so naturally they would want to play on the telephone. Surely they had plenty of spirit messengers among their retinues. Apparently public telephones only became available in 1890, until then they were reserved for the government, police and select companies.I can't read the centre panel which tells us who was selling what and I don't understand the signifance of 753 which is the number in both telephone booths and the banner on the right. Something to do with Shichi-Go-San? November 15? Sorry. But there would be no point to this hikifuda unless it was timely, that telephones were brand new, in the same way that this pair were pioneer joyriders in a motor car and donned military uniforms during the Russo-Japanese war.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.

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