Description

A color lithograph patriotic fan sample print, likely created between 1937 and 1941 during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), depicting two serious Bodhidharma (daruma dolls), figures of persistence, enjoining the populace to support the total war effort.[1] 

Above the dolls appears a slogan of the Central League of National Spiritual Mobilization formed by the government in 1937, "One Hundred Million People, One Heart, Total Mobilization" 一億 一心 総動員.[2]

The print carries the sample catalog number そ印 參百九拾參號 (so in sanbyaku kyū jū san gō [393]). 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.

[1] Referred to in China as the "War of Resistance Against Japan." 

[2] The phrase 一億一心 総動員 ((Ichioku Isshin Sōdōin) is also seen translated as "Unite One Hundred Million Hearts in Total Mobilization"