What is a hikifuda?

It might be easiest to imagine it as an advertising flyer. The earliest known hikifuda was a leaflet distributed by the kimono fabric store Mitsui Echigoya when it opened after refurbishments in 1691.
In the late 18th to mid 19th centuries, as the purchasing power of ordinary people grew, a wide range of hikifuda were produced to promote restaurants as well as to advertise things like accessories, cosmetics, and medicines.
Here we showcase a small selection of the hikifuda that are preserved in scrapbooks.

Popular Authors Who Also Worked as Copywriters

Santō Kyōden, Kyokutei Bakin, Shikitei Samba... Many popular authors also wrote advertising copy for hikifuda.
These authors produced advertisements for products sold in the stores they operated themselves alongside their literary pursuits, and were also hired as copywriters by other stores.
Here we showcase a number of hikifuda written by such authors.

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Hikifuda from a Legendary Restaurant

Momokawa was a high-class restaurant frequented by many prominent writers and artists.
The restaurant achieved success after it was engaged to provide banquets for the fleet of American "Black Ships" that visited Japan in the 1850s, but it disappeared following the 1868 Meiji Restoration.
Hikifuda from Momokawa is preserved in a scrapbook.

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Keiroku Zassen

Kaga Toyosaburō was a businessman and an avid collector of classical literature and works of art. These are single-sheet scrapbooks from his collection. In total, there are 30 general sheets and two additional sheets.

Kaga Collection 155

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Scrapbooks Exclusively for Medical and Cosmetic Product Hikifuda

In the Edo period, just like today, advertisements for medical and cosmetic products were numerous and rich in information.