Shōjo gahō, December 1928, vol.17 no.12 (cover)

Cover of Shōjo gahō (少女画報, Girls' Pictorial), December 1928 issue, vol. 17 no. 12, designed by Takabatake Kashō and published in Tokyo by Tōkyō-sha. The December cover would have been understood by its first readers as a winter and end-of-year image, conventionally heavy with snow motifs, warm clothing, and a sense of the season's celebrations. Kashō's contribution to the Shōjo gahō line over the late 1920s consolidated his position as the most recognizable Japanese magazine illustrator of his generation and shaped the visual look of the magazine's competitors as well. The original scan is held by the Kashō Museum Collection and made available through the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken) Database of Visual Images in Modern Japanese Popular Magazines and through Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons CC0 dedication. The cover is one of the more frequently reproduced of Kashō's magazine works in scholarly literature on Taishō and early Shōwa girls' culture.