Author: Hikifuda. Shoes.
Title: [Hakimono Hanao-sho .... Omura Kazumasa].
Description: n.p. [190-?]. 26x38cm colour woodcut. ¶ I guess that if a strapping sumo wrestler chooses to wear your shoes you know they must be sturdy. I guess the pint-size deity dancing on hs arm is a fukusuke but I don't get the connection, the significance of the hat, and neither do I know who he - the wrestler - is. I suspect that this is a celebrity portrait rather than a generic figure and I bet someone out there can identify both of them.These 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. That doesn't apply here.

Keywords: graphic commercial art advertising Japan costume footwear shoes hikifuda