Episode 2: Signboards | Japanese Wine

The advertisements on the right as you enter the museum are signboards from the Meiji period and later that would have been hung outside shops in the fashion you see here. The shrimp seen on one of the signboards is a traditional sign of longevity and good luck in Japan, and its shape is also reminiscent of clusters of wild mountain grapes. Daikokuten, one of Japan’s seven lucky gods, is depicted sitting on two barrels of wine instead of the usual two bales of rice. This type of imagery would have been very familiar to Japanese people, and the use of wine barrels instead of rice bales would have been seen as an ingenious marketing ploy. On the far right is a sign board promoting a competitor’s saffron-infused wine. Wine was promoted as a health tonic to get around early conflict with Japanese sake producers.