Shōwa Modern vs Yuefenpai

昭和モダン / 月份牌

Both sit in Advertising Posters, so the question is not what they belong to but how they behave. Both are read here as style. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.

Shōwa Modern

Shōwa Modern — 杉浦非水 東京地下鉄道ポスター 1927 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainShōwa Modern — 南満洲鉄道ポスター — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainShōwa Modern — JOAKポスター — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Prewar Japan's commercial modernism, typified by Sugiura Hisui's Mitsukoshi and subway posters: Deco crossed with nihonga, the modern girl's city and refined lettering drawing the dawn of consumer culture.

Yuefenpai

Yuefenpai — 東亜煙草公司の広告ポスター 1930年 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainYuefenpai — 《中華民国紀元第一年 月份牌》1912年 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainYuefenpai — 陰丹士林布の月份牌広告（蔭餘堂 ピーボディ・エセックス博物館蔵）— Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Advertising pictures with a calendar attached, which flowered in Shanghai. Women in qipao rendered in rubbed charcoal and watercolor sold cigarettes and cosmetics while keeping the date, and this East-West hybrid of commercial beauty painting repainted the visual culture of East Asia.

Shōwa ModernYuefenpai
Era1920s–1930s1910s–1940s
FamilyAdvertising PostersAdvertising Posters
KindStyleStyle
CuesDeco crossed with nihonga / The modern girl's city / Stylized lettering / Department stores and transitSoft rub-and-paint skin / Qipao beauties / Calendar and product together / East-West interiors
Best used forDepartment store and event bills selling a city mood, not merchandise · Rail and tourism advertising that must carry the lift of going outCalendars handed out and kept on a wall all year, selling while they date · Cosmetic and tobacco displays where a painted figure carries the longing
TypeKana stylized and thickened, set vertically without Latin mixed inProduct name and calendar banded at the foot, never over the painting
CompositionA figure cropped to the torso, background ordered by geometric bandsThe figure centered to the knee, interiors furnishing the depth
MaterialFlat color holding nihonga pigment murk, contours tightened by thin lineSkin rubbed smooth with charcoal, then thin watercolor glazed repeatedly
CautionSetting Deco ornament beside a kimono without the newness that city once had produces a period costume rather than a modern poster.Borrowing the qipao and the calendar frame while skipping the rubbed skin loses the softness of the originals and yields a garish copy.

Put these two together

Advertising Posters

IndexStyle