From Meiji Breweries to “Mr. Beer” – A Short History of Japanese Beer Posters
Meiji beginnings: Western barrels in Yokohama (1903)
One of the earliest surviving Kirin pieces is the 1903 lithograph: foreign gentlemen drinking in a cellar, seated in front of huge barrels branded “KIRIN BEER.” The caption reads:
1903年（明治36年）石版刷りによる印刷。
Printed in 1903 (Meiji 36) using stone lithography.
This is pure illustration. No photograph, almost no copy – just atmosphere. Japan was still getting used to beer as a Western import, and the image reassured drinkers: this is “proper” European beer, right down to the clothes and barrels.
Original prints like this are ultra‑rare survivors of Meiji advertising.
Taishō romance and early modernity: Kirin & Ebisu (1910s–1920s)
By the 1910s, Kirin posters start to feel more modern but are still entirely painted. One example (in stock) shows a strong, modern man in a white shirt raising a glass in front of stylised factory chimneys. The logo is set right‑to‑left – “キリンビール” read as ルービンリキ – a wonderful pre‑war detail.
Around the same era, competitors such as Sapporo Ebisu Beer (1921, original poster in stock) use similar illustrative techniques: romantic lighting, traditional kimono, and detailed branding. Photography is still rare; the goal is to project sophistication and imported glamour.
These early pieces match the Japanese text’s description perfectly: illustration as the star, with a “modern sensibility” and a consistent style that lasts for decades.
1930s Kirin: elegant modern girls
Move into the 1930s and a new Kirin poster (also in stock) captures a shift in taste. A young woman in kimono gently presents a Kirin bottle on a tray, painted in soft, almost impressionistic colour. Behind her, a man raises a glass with a slightly blurred, dream‑like smile.
Beer here is no longer a purely Western curiosity. It’s part of Japanese urban life – nightlife, dates, dinners. Yet the medium is still illustration; the “graphic design” is in the composition and painterly style, not yet in typography or photography.
Post‑war boom and beach‑chair modernism: Kirin 1952
After the war, Japan’s economy and beer consumption both explode. Kirin Lager, first released under the Kirin name in 1888 (Kirin Brewery is formally founded in 1907), becomes one of the country’s flagship beers.
On this 1952 Kirin poster – the famous bottle on a striped beach chair, topped with a straw hat – perfectly captures this new mood. It’s almost shockingly minimal for its time:
- No people at all, just a bottle, a chair and a hat in golden sand.
- Clean, graphic lines and bright flat colour foreshadow mid‑century design.
- The red copy at the bottom reads 「品質本位」 – “Quality First.”
You can feel the transition the Japanese text talks about: posters are becoming “more complete media” with a strong graphic idea rather than just narrative illustration.
This design is undoubtedly one of the best “summer beer” images ever produced in Japan.
1950s Asahi: glamour and the first TV stars
By the 1950s, the shift the article mentions really begins: big photographs and star power.
Two Asahi posters on our site show how quickly things change:
- Asahi Beer, Three Women (1950s, in stock) – three identically styled women flanking a central image, all holding beer. The design plays with repetition like a movie still, suggesting a chorus line of TV idols.
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Asahi Gold Beer (1950s, in stock) – a glamorous woman in a red backdrop, smiling with a tall foaming glass. The composition is photo‑real, airbrushed to perfection, and the bottle and can are shown pack‑shot style in the upper corner.
Here we see exactly what the Japanese text notes for the 1960s onward: “star actors appear to catch the eye, photographs are used large, and catchy copy is added.” Beer posters are no longer simply about the drink; they are about aspiration – the lifestyle of the woman (or man) on the sheet.
1965 Asahi x Tadanori Yokoo: pop psychedelia hits beer
If the 1952 Kirin beach chair hints at modernism, Tadanori Yokoo’s 1965 Asahi Beer poster shouts it from the rooftop.
Our original shows a beaming woman in a striped swimsuit leaping through surf, set against a riotous, hand‑drawn resort landscape – cable cars, sailboats, tiny people sunbathing beneath a smiling sun. The Asahi bottle anchors the lower corner; the slogan splashes diagonally across the design.
It’s a perfect collision of:
- Pop art collage
- Psychedelic colour
- The new “youth leisure” culture of the 1960s
This is the era when Japanese TV and print advertising really embrace celebrities. A well‑known study later found that nearly half of Japanese TV commercials in 1998 used celebrities – more than double the U.S. rate – and the trend starts in exactly this period. Think of Lost in Translation’s “Suntory Time” joke: that’s the world this poster belongs to.
Original Yokoo advertising pieces are fiercely sought‑after; the surviving Asahi sheets are some of the rarest beer posters we carry.
Kirin’s quiet confidence: 1970s–80s
While Asahi and others chase bright pop imagery and hard‑selling slogans, Kirin – sitting on dominant market share – takes a different approach. As the translated text says:
“You don’t really see radical image strategies… Kirin avoided vigorous product‑pushing directions and instead developed advertising that conveyed a low‑key corporate image with little of the usual advertising smell.”
In other words, when you’re already number one, you don’t have to shout. Kirin’s posters tend to feel calm, adult, and grounded: well‑lit product shots, relaxed settings, confident typography. The brand’s “adult‑oriented basic image” becomes its greatest strength.
1990s: Harrison Ford and “Mr. Beer”
By the early 1990s, beer advertising is a fully mature medium – high‑end photography, global celebrity, and a very Japanese love for witty understatement. Enter Harrison Ford.
Our original Japanese B2 poster from 1993 comes from Kirin Lager Beer’s nationwide “Mr. Beer” campaign:
- Ford stands in a bright white studio, casually hugging an oversize Kirin Lager bottle.
- A vertical headline reads 「キリンラガービール、日本一、ください。」 – roughly, “Kirin Lager Beer, Japan’s No.1 – please.”
- A small pack‑shot announces “Mr. Beer. Kirin Lager Beer,” with a legal line noting Kirin Lager’s 1993 No.1 sales claim.
The design is wonderfully economical. No beach, no party scene – just Ford, the bottle, and one simple line. It’s the logical end point of that earlier Kirin philosophy: calm, confident, and just a little bit cheeky.
The sheet itself is 非売品 (non‑retail): a true in‑store poster used at convenience stores and liquor shops across Japan. As is typical for 1990s shop POP, the agency and photographer are uncredited, but that only adds to the charm; what survives now are working artefacts of everyday commercial culture.
We also have later A4 Kirin Cup tie‑in posters (1994–95) using similar imagery – compact slices of the same campaign for bar and restaurant display.
Why these posters matter (and why originals are so rare)
Looking across:
- Kirin 1903 lithograph
- Kirin 1910s “factory worker” poster
- Sapporo Ebisu Beer 1921 (in stock)
- Kirin 1930s “kimono girl” poster (in stock)
- Kirin Beer 1952 beach‑chair design
- Asahi Beer 1950s (three women) & Asahi Gold (both in stock)
- Asahi x Tadanori Yokoo 1965 (in stock)
- Kirin x Harrison Ford 1993–95 “Mr. Beer / Kirin Cup” pieces (A4 in stock)
…you can literally see the evolution described above:
- Illustration‑only Meiji/Taishō designs
- Inter‑war elegance and domestic modernity
- Post‑war leisure and mid‑century minimalism
- 1950s–60s celebrity‑driven photography and pop
- 1970s–80s “quiet giant” corporate branding
- 1990s global celebrity and fully mature graphic design
Most of these were never meant to be collected. They were pasted up, sun‑faded, and thrown away. Surviving originals – especially in large formats and good condition – are therefore ultra‑rare. That’s exactly what makes them so exciting to handle today.
On our site you’ll find a small, carefully curated group of these posters available: real, period‑printed sheets, not modern reprints. Each one is a snapshot of how Japan saw beer – and itself – at that moment in time.
If you love design, typography, Japanese pop culture, or just a cold lager, they’re some of the most satisfying pieces you can hang on a wall.
