“Kirin Beer – Woman in a Dress Holding a Glass (キリンビールポスター『グラスを持つドレスの女性』)” – Original Pre‑War Japanese Advertising Poster, 1924 (Taishō 13), Ultra Rare, Museum‑Grade HB‑Process Lithograph (c. 92 × 62 cm)

An exquisite, ultra‑rare original advertising poster for Kirin Beer, printed in 1924 (Taishō 13) at the high tide of Japan’s Taishō modernity. This celebrated design – catalogued in museum records as 「キリンビールポスター『グラスを持つドレスの女性』」 (“Kirin Beer poster – Woman in a dress holding a glass”) – captures a luminous Western‑style beauty raising a tall glass of golden beer, her face half‑veiled in shadow and half‑lit with a knowing smile.

Produced by Seihan Insatsu Kabushiki Kaisha using the patented HB colour process, this large‑format sheet (c. 92 × 62 cm) is a textbook example of top‑tier Japanese commercial lithography of the 1920s. The paper retains its lovely surface, with the colours of the flesh tones, rich blues and ambers remaining remarkably fresh for a poster now around a century old – a true museum‑grade survivor.

This exact design is securely dated in institutional catalogues to Taishō 13 (1924). Documented examples reside in the Sakatsu Collection and in the holdings of institutions such as Jōsai University Museum and Urawa Art Museum, where it is consistently recorded as a 1924 Kirin Beer poster printed by Seihan Insatsu. Original pre‑war beer posters of this calibre almost never surface on the market; this sheet offers a rare opportunity to own one of the canonical images of Japanese advertising art.

Poster Details
Title: Kirin Beer – Woman in a Dress Holding a Glass (キリンビールポスター『グラスを持つドレスの女性』)
Brand / Product: Kirin Beer (キリンビール)
Country / Year: Japan, 1924 (Taishō 13)
Format: Original Japanese commercial advertising poster
Dimensions: Approx. 92 × 62 cm (c. 36¼ × 24½ in)
Printer: Seihan Insatsu Kabushiki Kaisha (精版印刷株式會社)
Printing Process: Patented HB Process colour lithography (特許HBプロセス製版印刷)
Display Orientation: Vertical one‑sheet

Description
The composition is a masterclass in early 20th‑century glamour. A young woman in a delicate dress – a quintessential moga (modern girl) – is shown in three‑quarter profile, her bare shoulders and long neck modelled with soft, painterly gradations that recall European Belle Époque and proto‑Art Deco portraiture. A dramatic field of deep brown and blue envelops her, allowing the creamy highlights of her skin and the luminous golden beer to glow almost like an oil painting.

Held between her fingers, the tall glass of beer, crowned with a generous head of foam, becomes the visual and symbolic focal point of the image: modern, urbane pleasure distilled into a single, crystalline object. At the bottom, the bold green katakana headline ルービンリキ reads right‑to‑left – the period convention – as キリンビール (“Kirin Beer”), an elegant typographic flourish that firmly roots the design in the Taishō / early Shōwa era.

In the lower border, printed vertically at left, is the credit 「精版印刷株式會社 / 特許HBプロセス製版印刷」, identifying Seihan Printing Co., Ltd. and specifying the patented HB process – the Huebner–Bleistein colour photo‑lithography system that enabled remarkably subtle tonal transitions and rich, saturated hues. Along the bottom centre, the right‑to‑left company credit for 株式会社明治屋 (Meidiya Co., Ltd.) further confirms period production and distribution.

In person, the poster has the depth and presence of a large painting; it was conceived as a luxury point‑of‑sale display piece, intended to seduce viewers in bars and high‑class establishments at a moment when Western‑style beer was becoming a symbol of cosmopolitan life.

Rarity
Pre‑war Japanese beer posters sit at the intersection of advertising, design history, and the evolution of modern Japanese visual culture, and they were produced as inherently ephemeral objects. Most were pasted on walls or windows and discarded once campaigns ended; only a tiny fraction survived the ravages of time, war, and changing tastes.

For this particular design, surviving examples are known primarily through institutional holdings. It is recorded in the exhibition catalogue 「明治・大正・昭和 お酒の広告グラフィティ」 (as item no. 55, “キリンビールポスター『グラスを持つドレスの女性』 1924年 92.0×62.0 精版印刷株式会社”) and appears again in Jōsai University Museum’s 2019 activity report and in documentation of the Sakatsu Collection: Japanese Poster Art exhibition at Urawa Art Museum, each time captioned “Kirin Beer poster – Woman in a dress holding a glass, 1924, Seihan Insatsu”.

Outside these collections, original sheets are seldom encountered. Many collectors and specialists in pre‑war Japanese advertising have handled only reproductions or seen the image solely in catalogues. An unrestored, full‑size period printing such as the present example must be regarded as genuinely ultra‑rare and fully worthy of institutional acquisition.

Condition
Condition: Very Good+ to Near Excellent for the period; unrestored, unbacked.

• Paper shows uniform, attractive age‑toning consistent with an approximately 100‑year‑old sheet.
• Image field exceptionally strong with rich, unfaded colour; flesh tones, blues and the golden beer remain vivid, with only very light, unobtrusive surface handling visible on close inspection.
• Margins exhibit expected signs of age and display: minor edge nicks and chips, small areas of paper wear and roughness (notably along the upper and right edges), scattered small holes and dark spots in the top border, and a few tiny spots and handling marks in the lower margin.
• A small area of surface wear / light abrasion is present in the blue field at right, well away from the central figure; no large losses or distracting repairs.
• Reverse shows even toning and the characteristic “ghost” impression of the front image from the HB process; no tape, no backing, and no evidence of modern restoration.

Considering its size, fragility and pre‑war vintage, the overall state of preservation is remarkable. The sheet presents beautifully as is and would respond superbly to professional conservation and linen‑backing should a future owner wish to prepare it for exhibition.

Historical Significance
Pre‑war Japanese beer posters form a visual record of one of the most dynamic periods in Japan’s cultural history. In the decades after Japan opened more fully to the West, beer – a foreign import – became an emblem of modern, urban sophistication. While today’s craft‑beer boom is a relatively recent phenomenon, the 1910s–1920s were a golden age of beer advertising, when breweries like Kirin, Asahi and Sapporo invested heavily in hand‑drawn imagery to project an aspirational lifestyle.

Early campaigns often featured kimono‑clad beauties and geisha, appealing both to domestic clientele and to export markets across Asia. By the mid‑Taishō era, however, the “modern girl” – bobbed hair, dresses, Western jewellery, cocktails and pilsner glasses – came to the fore. This poster epitomises that shift: its subject is cosmopolitan, self‑possessed and unmistakably modern, gesturing toward the pleasures of nightlife, jazz cafés and imported luxury.

Within this context, the present design stands as one of the classic images of Japanese beer advertising, perfectly balancing Western painterly techniques with Japanese typography and sensibility. It is both a seductive commercial image and a document of the cultural transformations of the 1920s – an object that speaks simultaneously to the history of design, gender, commerce and globalisation.

Additional Information
Authenticity: Guaranteed original pre‑war Seihan Insatsu HB‑process printing; not a modern reproduction or later giclée.
Documentation: Design recorded in multiple Japanese museum catalogues and exhibition records as a 1924 Kirin Beer poster printed by Seihan Insatsu; margin credits on this sheet conform exactly to those described and illustrated in institutional holdings.

A truly unrepeatable opportunity to acquire an ultra‑rare, museum‑worthy survivor from the golden age of Japanese advertising – a centrepiece of any serious collection of Japanese design, pre‑war ephemera, brewing history, or early 20th‑century graphic art.