Kono Bijin

In February of 1911, Hashiguchi Goyō entered a Western-style oil painting, titled Kono Bijin (This Beauty), for an advertising competition sponsored by the Mitsukoshi department store. It won first prize out of 300 submissions and was reproduced as a lithographic poster to promote Mitsukoshi in a nationwide campaign.

While Goyō is most famous for his later Shin-hanga woodblock prints, he started his career as a painter. From early on Goyō blended various Western and Japanese influences in his oil paintings, with a notable affinity for Art Nouveau.

Like those earlier works, the Mitsukoshi poster naturally combines realistic depictions and stylized elements. Goyō paired a three-dimensional depiction of the subject’s face using highlights and shadows with a flat, woodblock-style kimono, set before an ornamental background.
The composition draws on the classic Bijin-ga theme, or “pictures of beautiful women,” prevalent in Nihon-ga paintings and Ukiyo-e prints.

Aligned with Mitsukoshi’s clientele of “the modern woman,” the poster’s aesthetic — as well as its subject, who wore her hair in the fashionable “203 Kōchi” style — reflects the trends of the time. Notably, the subject holds a picture book of woodblock prints, which grounds the progressive elements with a familiar element.

Goyō managed to blend traditional and modern motifs with Japanese and Western aesthetics into a unique, captivating composition.

Modern printing techniques

The poster was printed using state-of-the-art lithographic printing techniques. Lithography was imported to Japan from Europe, where it had revolutionized the production of advertising posters in the 1880s. Essentially, the process involves making printing plates out of limestone and using them with oily inks that adhere only to the image painted on their surface.

Because the limestone undergoes virtually no wear during printing, a single plate can produce an almost unlimited number of copies. This allows for long runs without sacrificing quality, and the high unit cost decreases as the quantity increases — making it an efficient method for high-volume printing projects.

Hashiguchi Goyō’s work was reproduced by artists at Mima Printing Company in Ginza, who divided the image into more than 30 color plates. Lavishly printed to highest quality standards, the poster reflects Mitsukoshi's high-end sensibility.

Mitsukoshi's innovations in retail

To this day, the Mitsukoshi department store is synonymous with luxury shopping in Japan.
The history of Mitsukoshi began in 1673, when Takatoshi Mitsui, a kimono fabric merchant, founded Echigoya Dry Good Store in Edo, present-day Tokyo.

Over the centuries, it catered equally to the Imperial Household, the nobility, and the ordinary middle and working classes. The store's goods were affordable and of good quality, contributing greatly to its positive reputation, which spread far beyond Tokyo.

In the aftermath of the Meiji Restoration, the store eventually broke out of the mold of the traditional Japanese retail format to adapt to evolving customer needs. In 1904, Echigoya was renamed Mitsukoshi and transformed into Japan's first Western-style department store. In 1914, Mitsukoshi cemented its image of being a modern, trend-setting retailer by rebuilding its store with Western-style architecture, echoing the Victorian buildings of 18th-century Europe.

Mitsukoshi had its finger on the pulse of time, evolving over the years. Still, it remained true to its origins, offering high-quality kimonos to fashion-conscious women. That could well have been the underlying message of Goyō’s poster.

Mitsukoshi's innovations in advertising

Considering that this artwork was an advertisement, Mitsukoshi's choice to let the visual speak for itself and refrain from using any advertising copy, aside from the logo mark and company name, was a bold choice. The poster might not be out of a place in a present-day ad campaign, aiming to increase brand awareness and customer perception of the company by reaching beyond the marketing of a single product.

Though words like “design,” “branding,” and “marketing” had not yet entered everyday vocabulary, it may well have been a deliberate choice by the campaign’s creative minds to focus on promoting Mitsukoshi's “brand image.”

Notably, Mitsukoshi had effectively established its own art department in 1907, headed by graphic design pioneer Sugiura Hisui, to oversee the production of marketing materials like catalogs, posters, and magazines.

At a time when it was common to commission external printing companies to produce advertisements, Mitsukoshi was innovative in establishing an in-house marketing department dedicated to creating consistent branding.

Given that they were able to create fabulous work in-house, it seems counterintuitive to launch a poster contest. But it was a stroke of genius that proved to be very effective in generating publicity for Mitsukoshi.

The extraordinary first prize of 1,000 yen attracted much attention, and there was such a rush of entries that art supplies ran out for a time. Mitsukoshi announced the winning work at a grand event and ceremonially displayed it at the Nihonbashi store.

The run for the Kono Bijin print was set at over 500 copies to match the number of train stations across Japan at the time, helping the poster reach prospective customers in the most remote parts of the country.