Edo-era fliers "Hikifuda"

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Hikifuda (pulling tickets) were advertising leaflets produced for promotional purposes from the Edo period to the Taisho period. The word "hiki" means to attract customers, and the word "fuda" means a piece of paper.

At the beginning of the Edo period, hikifuda were simple one- or two-color prints, but as commercial activity became more active in the latter half of the Edo period, colorful prints such as ukiyoe also appeared.

Printing methods also evolved with the times, including woodblock printing, lithography, copperplate printing, and the earliest forms of movable type printing, and the number of flyers also increased.

As commerce became more active, "sales slogans" - the forerunners of "catch copy" -
began to be created, and a style of advertising that appealed through words and visuals was born.

The Japanese word for flyer is "chirashi", which comes from the Japanese word "makichirashi", which means to scatter fliers around.

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