Osaka Steamship #3 – let the vulture soar
Comments: 8
Speaking of islands and journeys by sea, we reach the halfway point in the Osaka Steamship series with this postcard, certainly, to my eyes, the weirdest of the bunch.
Militarist overtones, the fire in the sky, the coincidental but poignant historical foreshadowing of the flag dipping into the sea, and what I thought was a vulture but must be a condor (and might be an eagle, although that might have been too American at the time: I’m wondering if this poster doesn’t date from the war years or just before) and a disembodied point of view in the painting (then as now, you wouldn’t want to be on the deck of a ship with a giant condor coming straight at you over the waves so we float above the sea on an omniscient pictorial vantage point) remind us that nations can think they have everything but ultimately have only the promises they make to themselves.
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Posted to Advertising • 2006.08.05 (Sat) • 08:51
Comments
Posted by Evan Jones 2006.08.05, 10:03
Well put. Bon voyage.
Posted by Jolyon 2006.08.05, 14:58
Nah. It’s a big chicken. Early prototype. Didn’t make it to production. Kept crashing.
Posted by dykstraNet 2006.08.06, 12:10
I agree… looks like a chicken. Would be useful to get the translation from the text on top.
Regarding nations and promises… it’s individuals that must fulfill the promises of the nation-state. Propaganda like this gets them pumped up to deliver.
Posted by Kristen 2006.08.06, 13:30
The text across the top is the name of the steamship line. Right-to-left, the old fashioned way.
Posted by steve 2006.08.06, 18:13
it’s “osaka commercial shipping company”
Posted by dykstraNet 2006.08.06, 20:32
Evidence to support the chicken theory:
Posted by riccard0 2006.08.30, 21:16
Judging from the little we can see of the tail, it could be a very poorly drawn 鳳凰 (chinese phoenix)….
Posted by delvig 2007.01.10, 12:56
titto. one ugly painted phoenix (fenghuang). it might be a good wish that they never wreck their vessels or something similar as the phoenix never dies and stands for fortune in easternasian cultures. the bird nevertheless seems to me better be ovened and served on a gigantic plate. god, i’m a monster.
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