IHL Cat. #2683

Description

A color lithograph patriotic fan sample print, likely created between 1937 and 1941 during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)*, depicting two mounted soldiers on horseback with one carrying the flag of the Imperial Japanese Army. These cherubic-looking soldiers appear to be younger than the army's stated minimum age of 20 years old, a minimum age that was not strictly enforced. The scene is set in China where the Japanese flag flies over a captured fort or walled town.

The print carries the sample catalog number そ印 四百壹號  (so in yonhyaku ichi gō [401]). These numbered fan prints (uchiwa-e 団扇絵) were gathered into a sample book (uchiwa mihonchō 団扇見本帳, or uchiwa gachō 団扇画帖.) to show wholesale customers the range of available designs.

* Referred to in China as the "War of Resistance Against Japan."