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

   

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 

 

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


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. 

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