Ippōsai Yoshifuji - Russian Soldier with His Family - 2nd month, 1861 - STICKER Vinyl Kiss-Cut Decal

This 1861 ukiyo-e woodblock print by Ippōsai Yoshifuji shows a Russian soldier standing with his wife and child in the port city of Yokohama during the late Edo period.

Visual Elements & Composition

The design is a vertical rectangle, and the family fills it from top to bottom. The woman wears a black cape over a blue-patterned striped skirt and a blue hat. Beside her, the soldier wears a white fur-trimmed coat dotted with blue and a tall black hat with a red plume. A seated man in a blue uniform and peaked cap completes the group. Golden yellow, cream, blue, black and pale pink carry the palette, and a title cartouche at the top holds fragments of characters.

Meaning & Symbolism

Yokohama-e prints recorded the foreigners who arrived after Japan opened its ports to international trade. Yoshifuji was fascinated by the clothing and appearance of Westerners, and this print gives them close, careful attention. It is a portrait of a household rather than a battlefield or a uniform study, so it documents daily presence as much as national difference. The image stands as a visual record of the cultural encounter unfolding in Yokohama as Japan met the outside world.

On the Kiss-Cut Sticker

A kiss-cut sticker is cut to its own outline, so the figures and cartouche stand alone without a surrounding border. The composition suits the smooth, flat surfaces this format is made for, such as laptops, journals and windows. At that scale, the striped skirt, the plumed hat and the blue-dotted coat remain legible up close, which rewards a viewer who looks closely. Placed indoors, it becomes a conversation piece for collectors of ukiyo-e and Yokohama-e.