Pipe Shop 19th century. Wood and metal. 32 x 9/ 1 2 inches. Smoking was a vogue among the samurai and merchant classes in Edo period Japan, and shops for pipes and accessories flourished. A larger-than-life-size model of a typical brass pipe inset on a fine-grained plaque of keyaki wood is a handsome sign for this shop. The simple, bold contrast of the natural materials is basic to the aesthetic of many traditional Japanese shop signs.
Daruma Tobacco 19th century. Polychromed wood. 37 x 24 inches. This sign for a tobacco shop depicts the popular Japanese folk image of Daruma,the legendary founder of Zen Buddhism, wrapped in red tobacco leaves. Images of this Indian sage who transmitted Zen to China in the 6th century were venerated there and in Japan, where the religion spread after the 12th century. Common attributes of the Daruma (as illustrated too in this sign) were exaggerated "foreign" features of the face, and a loose, often hooded and sometimes red robe. Legend accounts how Daruma lost his legs seeking enlightenment when he sat cross-legged in meditation for nine years. By the time this carving was made, round-bottomed, fierceeyed images of Daruma were common symbols of good fortune and the trademark of many businesses.
styles of lettering may be seen. In Japan, the signs created early in the 18th and 19th centuries were carvings of an oversized replica of the actual object being sold, typically an abacus, an umbrella, or as here, a pipe. Called mokei kanban, these signs were sometimes carved in the shape of the container in which the object was traditionally stored 40
or sold, such as a tea-leaf um for a tea shop. These plain sculptural kanban could be recognized by the illiterate public and became the trademark of many local businesses. The radishes advertising a greengrocer and the iron hardware inset on a plain wood board that was a locksmith's sign are two examples of a more primitive—yet more immedi-
ate—aesthetic statement. Whereas the later kanban tended towards much decoration and narration, these direct advertisements served their function with elegant simplicity. The old-time American favorites of a wooden boot outside a shoemaker's establishment, the tin soldier outside a toy shop, and the pointing figure—indication of a