Showing posts with label Greetings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Greetings. Show all posts

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Putting The"X" in Xmas

Japanese Christmas card, 1985—
Opening it reveals a popup scene: the priest, a sugary "traditional Japanese Christmas cake"...
... Surprise!
No, that's not Who it would seem; the cartoon represents this guy. This was during his early career, as TV's popular "Beat Takeshi"—
The targets of his jokes were often the socially vulnerable, including the elderly, the handicapped, the poor, children, women, the ugly and the stupid. Complaints to the broadcaster led to censorship of some of Kitano's jokes and the editing of offensive dialogue. Kitano confirmed in a video interview that he was forbidden to access the NHK studios for five years for having exposed his body during a show when it was totally forbidden.
The explanation I got for this card is that the cartoon portrays a recurring bit on the Takeshi show. When a character does something naughty, the star materializes on a cross, hollering,
"ダメ!" ["Damé!": bad], while holding his hands in an "X"(a Japanese signal for, "No!")

Well, Christianity is exotic to most Japanese, so related trappings serve well as comic props. All in good fun... Though I have always marvelled at the US corporate connection to Sanrio's card creation...

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Bonne Année

Early 20th century French card, actual size.
Partly tinted photo, with embossed New Year's greeting.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Outside the Box

1950s gift wrap sheets, found in a small town during a road trip of J.'s—
Yet another reason to lament the loss of local retail to big box.

More designs—