Patriotic Girl

(between 1939 and 1941)

IHL Cat. #2670

Description

A color lithograph patriotic fan sample print, likely created between 1939 and 1941 during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)*, depicting a singer and her accompanist during a radio broadcast. The banner on the stand to the right tells us the song is "Patriotic Girl" (愛国娘, Aikoku musume). "Patriotic Girl," a gunka (military song), was composed in 1939, with lyrics by poet and lyricist Satō Sōnosuke 佐藤惣之助 (1890-1942) and music composed by Tetsuo Suzuki 鈴木正次 (1903-1977), under the penname Wada Jūrō 和田十郎. The second and fourth stanzas of the song are seen to the left of the singer. A transcription of the stanzas with a lose translation follows.

See IHL. Cat. #2679 for another fan print sample bearing the song "Patriotic Girl."

Record Label

昼と晩とのニュースを聞いて
胸にしみこむ戦地の便り
地図をひらいて印をつけて
家（うち）の兄さん手柄はまだか

お嫁どころか休みの日には
かえる白衣の勇士を迎え
もゆる感謝の涙をためて
駅へ行きます　愛国娘[1]

Listening to the news at noon and night,

It pierces her heart, the word from the battlefield,

Opening a map, she marks it,

"My big brother, have you achieved any great deeds yet?"

Instead of becoming a bride, on my days off,

I welcome the returning brave soldier in a white uniform.

With overflowing tears of gratitude,

I go to the station, a patriotic girl.

The print carries the sample catalog number そ印参百六拾貳號 (so in sanbyaku roku jū ni gō [362]). 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.

Note: Transcriptions and translations are my own unless otherwise noted.

* The Second Sino-Japanese War is referred to in China as the "War of Resistance Against Japan."

[1] Transcription appearing on Mojin.com https://mojim.com/usy116688x1x4.htm [accessed 11-1-23]

Print Details