An Ainu Girl Playing the Mukkuri (Jew's Harp)
Date
1953
Credits
- Kuriyagawa Kenichi Graphic Designer
Format
- Poster 2634
Clients
Media
- paper 2205
Techniques
- offset lithography 672
- painting 108
Dimensions
730 × 1030 mm
Locations Made
- Japan 571
This 1954 travel poster by Kenichi Kuriyagawa shows an Ainu girl in traditional dress on Hokkaido. Kuriyagawa applies an impasto technique to give texture and depth to the image. The poster highlights the Ainu as a distinct cultural group and reflects postwar Japan’s focus on tourism and regional identity. Its composition emphasizes both the figure and the surrounding landscape, creating a vivid sense of place. Kuriyagawa’s textured brushwork makes the figure stand out against the softly rendered Hokkaido landscape, emphasizing both cultural detail and natural surroundings.
