Antique Woodblocks – Saigō Takamori & Toyama Medicine Trade

Date: Taishō era, c. 1912–1926
Origin: Toyama Prefecture, Japan
Material: Carved wood
Use: Pharmaceutical packaging, labeling and commercial printing
Condition: Antique working objects with expected wear.

A set of hand-carved commercial printing blocks identified as depicting Saigō Takamori (1828–1877), one of the most famous samurai of the Meiji Restoration. Toyama's pharmaceutical industry is known to have employed Saigō's image in commercial woodblock material; the Toyama City Pharmaceutical Industry Digital Archive preserves another example catalogued as “Woodblock (Saigō Takamori).”

Toyama has been famous for its medicine trade since the Edo period. Traveling medicine sellers supplied households throughout Japan using the distinctive senyō kōri system - customers kept medicines in their homes and paid only for what they had used when the seller returned. By the Meiji and Taishō periods, this traditional trade had developed into a major pharmaceutical industry, with numerous manufacturers producing their own branded medicines.

These original carved blocks were part of that commercial culture. They feature Japanese product names, trademarks, company information and, in some cases, elaborate pictorial designs. Blocks of this type were used to print material associated with medicines, including labels, wrappers, boxes and advertising. Their hand-carved lettering is reversed so that the characters would appear correctly when printed.

Set contains 3 blocks as shown.