Exhibit: The World of Hand-Painted Movie Posters and Signboards IV

Dates: December 1 (Mon) - 6 (Sat), 2026
Time: 10:00-17:00
Location: Multi-Purpose Room, Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University (Kinugasa campus)
Admission: Free
Organizers:
* Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University
*"Kyoto Street Culture Archive: Memories of the Pop Culture Featuring the Streets, and their Visualization" Project (ARC-iJAC Digital Humanities Center for Japanese Arts and Cultures)
*"Project for the Construction of an Archive of Non-Film Materials Related to Showa period Movie theatre Culture" (Kakenhi C)

In the early Showa period, as motion pictures moved from silent films to "talkies," hand-drawn posters adorned the interiors of Kyoto cinemas, advertising both the films currently being shown, and upcoming releases. At that time, each week typically saw new film releases, resulting accordingly in a great diversity and number of posters.

In this fourth iteration of this exhibit, we are featuring posters produced at the Shinko Kinema studios for display at the Shochiku-za, Kyoto-za, and other Shochiku-affiliated movie theatres. These include posters illustrated by Takeda Kosei (Ihachiro), who was famous at the time in the world of Kabuki for the posters and signboards he produced for Kyoto's Minami-za Kabuki theatre. Please enjoy this world of hand-drawn movie posters, designed with compositions, touches, and typefaces selected to suit each film.

The hand-drawn posters in this exhibit are a selection of those held by the Kyoto cinema posters production studio Takematsu Gabo. The studio's collection includes roughly 800 posters, all of which were made to be displayed in Shochiku-affiliated cinemas in central Kyoto around 1928 to 1942. Similar posters were presumably displayed at other cinemas, but only these are known to survive, making them exceptionally important resources for understanding the movie industry and cinema culture of that time. This six-day exhibit features roughly 80 posters made at the Shinko Kinema studios in 1936-1937, as well as maps and photographs of Kyoto cinemas from the 1950s-1970s, offering a nostalgic glimpse into the Kyoto of that time.