Patriotic Girl

(between 1939 and 1941)

IHL Cat. #2679

Description

A color lithograph patriotic fan sample print, likely created between 1939 and 1941 during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)*, depicting a young woman waving a small Japanese flag while two soldiers, in an imagined scene, ply the waters on a mission in China. The first two stanzas of the 1939 song, "Patriotic Girl" (愛国娘), lyrics by  Satō Sōnosuke 佐藤惣之助 (1890-1942) with music composed by Tetsuo Suzuki 鈴木正次 (1903-1977), under the penname Wada Jūrō 和田十郎, are printed on the fan. Perhaps one of the soldiers is her "big brother" as in the song's lyrics below?

See IHL. Cat. #2670 for another fan print sample bearing the song "Patriotic Girl."

Record Label

①   

若い黒髪 きりりと結び

臙脂(べに)もつけずに エプロン姿 

街の夜明けに 工場の笛に 

行くよゆきます 愛国娘 

② 

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

うちの兄ちん 手柄はまだか


①

Young, with black hair neatly tied, 

Without a trace of rouge,

In an apron, she heads out at dawn,

To the factory's whistle, she goes, a patriotic girl. 

②

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?"

The print carries the sample catalog number そ印 参百五拾九號 (so in sanbyaku go jū kyū gō [359]). 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.

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

Print Details