Comment - This New Year's postcard shows four girls with head scarves in plain winter clothings in a rural area, together building a large snowman. Two dogs watching them. A snowy mountainous background with a farm house and two kites fluttering in the blue sky. The upper kite is an Edo kite ("Edo-tako", "江戸凧") with the kanji charcter (Kanji kite, "ji tako", "字凧") for "dragon" (龍, ryū). The second kite is a Yakko kite ("yakko dako", "奴凧"). Flying kites is a traditional pasttime for boys on New Year's Day.

Provenance - Tipped at the top to the cover of a postwar Japanese greeting card whose correspondence has been cut out. This print was found among a group of woodblock print post-war greeting cards addressed to Justin Williams, who was General Douglas MacArthur's chief liaison to the Japanese government.


Series - unknown series


Artist - 20th century artist, possibly Bakufu Ohno (大野麦風, 1888-1976). The above woodblock matches with known postcards, designed by him for the publisher Uchida ("A child walking through snowy fields in Northern Japan ("Snow Country").


Signature - "Baku" seal,


Publisher - Uchida (内田)


Image Size - 14.6cm X 9.6cm   (5.75" x 3.75") + margins as shown)


Condition - single sheet; nishiki-e (cloured woodblock); postcard size