Hikifuda — the Printed Handbill

The advertising flyer of Edo and Meiji Japan, announcing an opening or a sale. Auspicious images of Ebisu or the treasure ship carried the shop's name and were handed out at the New Year. The earliest example is the sheet Echigoya distributed in 1683 for its move to Surugacho — except that the word hikifuda did not yet exist. The name settled about a hundred and forty years later, in the Bunsei era. Nor does it come from «pulling in customers»: the old sense of hiku here is to hand out. The original flyer was not even called a flyer. A name arriving afterwards and painting over what the original was called — the history of names repeats all over this map.