The Rapid Rise of Poster Culture - A Conversation With Japan Poster Shop
If recent exhibitions dotting Tokyo’s museums and galleries are any indication, there is recognition and demand for art that transcends our traditional understanding. Art can be almost anything, if you can justify it.
The stogy paintings or marble sculptures that gained the respect of even the most pretentious of art snobs, has branched out into a vaster array of mediums. Plush toys, sneakers, and other objects deemed as mere collectables only a decade ago are now fine art. Let’s face it, pop culture has reached the level of art because of the same attention to symbolism, design, and frankly, killer graphics found in “disposable” creations; think: flyers, keychains, and other merch make these works potential masterpieces in their own right.
At the top of the list of newly elevated art forms are posters. This trend started in the late 1890’s after Alphonse Mucha's famed “Gismonda” poster for an unremarkable French play became more sought after than tickets to the show itself. Poster hangers were bribed for a copy or else ripped off alleyway walls at an alarming rate. Fast forward a couple decades. No longer humble scraps of advertising, posters are something to be coveted. Just a quick search on Mercari or Yahoo auctions today reveals they have reached sky-high prices worth hundreds of thousands of yen matching their demand from die hard collectors and those just wanting to make a solid art investment.
Secondhand junkies, people who scour the dusty vintage shops clustered in Jimbocho or Nakano areas of Tokyo, know the thrill of finding something super rare but only for a mere couple hundred yen. That’s how many pop culture hyper consumers like to spend an ideal Sunday. However, this adrenaline rush is becoming far less frequent. The landscape for used/vintage posters and memorabilia has shifted, by the ubiquity of online retailers selling these gems for over 10 times their buying price. Yet, this phenomenon isn’t always bad news. Online retailers who go “hunting” for rare second hand goods allow people from around the globe to enjoy these finds, do the authentication process for you, and save you countless hours of shifting through junk stores [for those of us who don’t have a spare afternoon in Tokyo to go scavenging].
Sabukaru interviewed one of the online kings of ultra-limited posters, Max Fujiwara-Lieven, who founded the online-only Japan Poster Shop. A treasure trove of the rarest of the rare posters in hiragana or katakana Japanese text [as well as English] in splendid typography. Max, a bilingual Anglo-Japanese financier, turned poster collector, knows aside from iconic graphics, the added appeal of Japanese text over your favorite movie adverts is an irresistible plus to foreign buyers.
Check the Sabukaru Online Store for rare movie pamphlets.
We sat down with Max, browsed his selection, and talked about: why posters mean big money, how he finds his rarest stock, and the unexpected way he became a poster magnate changing Japan’s resale landscape.
Can you introduce yourself to the Sabukaru Network?
My name is Max Fujiwara-Lieven, and I’m the founder of Japan Poster Shop, an eclectic online store with posters ranging from the 2020’s to as far back as the 1920’s to contemporary ones. We have an inventory of pieces running from $50 USD and some that are $50,000 USD, sourced from all over Japan.
How and when did your Japan adventure start, and what was the initial reason to move back here?
I grew up in Yoyogi Uehara as a kid, and later ended up in London after graduating with a finance degree. I first worked at Mizuho Investment Bank. I was in a team focused on cross-border acquisitions. At the time the yen was super strong, and Japanese companies were buying up quite a few foreign assets [ex: Suntory buying Jim Beam]. My managing director was a kind Japanese man, probably on a salary of over $1m USD per year – everyday he would fall asleep at his desk at 3pm – that is how hard he worked. My job title was “Sales and Marketing Manager” but in reality I did anything I was asked, including making tea like literally anything.
Suffice to say, I did not enjoy the bank and decided to work in real estate instead for a man called Sir Stuart Lipton. Although my pay was halved, I had a great chance to work on the largest project in Europe called “Silvertown".This job was FAR more interesting than working in a bank for companies I don’t care about. The vision for Silvertown was to build a hub of brand experience buildings, along with a mini city of artist studios made from 300 shipping containers, 2,900 apartments, and a new bridge across the river. A big, big project.
This experience is what helped me when starting the Japan Poster Shop. In real estate, each project is a “start-up” – each project has it`s own SPV [Special Purpose Vehicle], project team, website, brand guidelines, etc etc etc.
Now the reason I came back to Japan. In 2016, the UK stupidly decided to leave the EU. This left the funding environment very difficult for Silvertown. Therefore, the project was suddenly gone. Fast forward a couple months, and I got a job at a management consultancy firm in Tokyo, that did a lot of business abroad and needed a native English speaker. But then COVID-19 pandemic hit, suddenly the outside of Japan projects were all cancelled, thus making my job redundant for the time being.
I was sitting at a desk reading the newspaper thinking “fuck my life” for 3 months.
So it was a combination of unexpected events that led you to founding Japan Poster Store. When did you guys start, and what was the initial idea behind it?
Well, at first I decided to start my own online business. I wasn’t sure what product yet, but I registered my company in the UK and called it “Tokyo to London LTD”. I then went to Bic Camera and bought two PC screens and the equipment I would need to start.
Why did I choose posters? I needed a product that is easy and cheap to ship, doesn’t take up too much space, has a relatively high value and margin and does not have a sell by date. Posters are a great product to sell online. They are an image – we live today in an image world on IG. So that was it, I bought the domain, made the website myself, and started selling posters on our website. Once I was earning the same as I was at the management consultancy I quit.
What was the first poster you ever bought, and how did that get the ball rolling for your full- fledged collection?
My first poster was a gift from my mum, a US one sheet for the film “La Dolce Vita”. I remembered when I was 19 and with no cash, I went to a poster gallery in London to see if I could sell it. To my surprise, they told me it was worth 1200 GBP. I guess it was then that I realized that posters are a lot more expensive abroad than they are in Japan. The Italian version of “La Dolce Vita” is one of the most sought after posters and sells for 40,000 EUR. Luckily I did not sell the first ever poster that I got, and I have it in my house now in Yoyogi Uehara.
You have some pretty niche posters, stuff that’s extremely hard to find. Where did you first find your initial pieces?
The big step was when I acquired over 5,000 posters from a warehouse / liquidator in Okayama. I had bought something off him for 1,000 yen and forgot to pay. I received a call from his assistant, at the time I was literally searching/traveling the whole of Japan looking for poster shops. I asked her if she was a shop, she said no they’re just a warehouse. I asked how many posters they have – she said I don’t know, thousands? I said where are you? She said Okayama. I said I'll be there tomorrow. I drove 750km there the next day.
There was thousands and thousands of posters. I spent hours going through them and picked out around 1000 that I wanted to buy. However, the owner said all or nothing. I ended up paying in cash the price of a Mercedes C-class. One of the things that persuaded me to do this was that we made a big sale whilst I was actually in the warehouse – it was a B0 sized Meiko Kaji poster. So now we were really in business!
It seems like you find most of your inventory through scouring the most unexpected places like that warehouse, is there any methodology to your search?
Sometimes people ask me what part of my job I like, it is definitely the hunt. I will choose an area for example Kansai – then I'll spend a few days there visiting contacts. I try and go on a hunt once every two months. It is great to find rarities and also to visit different areas of the motherland – sometimes literally in the middle of nowhere. Many of the items for sale were sourced off-market and are not available elsewhere online for sale. Usually we find quality stuff in more remote warehouses, Japan is a big place from Hokkaido to Okinawa – its like the program American Pickers.
You’ve got a massive poster inventory but out of all of these, what kinds of posters are usually the biggest sellers, the ones that diehard collectors have their eyes on?
We sell posters from the 1920`s to the 2020`s. We have an inventory of around 5,000. Mostly movie posters [90%], but we also sell vintage Capcom arcade posters for games like Street Fighter and posters by artists like Tadanori Yokoo. Popular items is an interesting question. We have a diverse customer base. Our clients who are between 20-35 are generally interested in “the Tarantino’s” of this world, anime like Akira, and series like Star Wars or James Bond. They aren’t necessarily big spenders.
But our 35 year old plus clients have the financial means to acquire posters that are true rarities. Perhaps only a few copies exist in the world and they seldom come to market – perhaps once every 5 years. These posters sell for several thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars. For example, Godzilla 1954 [first film] sold for 35,000 USD – the last copy to sell at auction in the US was in 2005 for 22,000 USD.
What would you say, is your rarest poster?
Japan Poster Shop took quite a lot of risk but each time it seemed to pay off. Firstly, the acquisition of thousands of posters in Okayama. Soon after that I bought two very rare Godzilla posters for the first and second film for a considerable sum of money – we sold these. Next, I acquired my first Seven Samurai 1954 poster [the most expensive item I had acquired so far] – it sold.
These victories gave me the confidence to invest into the rarest of the rare. At the moment, the rarest poster we have is an original Billboard for Dr. No – it is the only known copy to exist.
The only copy? How did you score that?
It was on loan [by a very well known Japanese collector] to the National Film Archive of Japan and was the centerpiece of their exhibition. I contacted him and suffice to say I am now the owner of this poster and also the billboard for From Russia with Love and Goldfinger.
Everything in Japan is well organized and controlled, is it the same within poster industry? You really changed the game by making your business mostly online, but who are your partners and competitors in the market?
In Japan, to sell posters you must have a kobutsu-shomeisho [which we have], it is then that you can join the union of second hand bookstores. This is a network of 750 second hand book stores. Some of the stores have been around since 1920. Most of the stores are overflowing with books and magazines and its hard to move around without knocking something over.
I have a strong connection and friendship with many union members and shop owners who are mostly in their 60`s and 70`s. During COVID when shops were forced to close, Japan Poster Shop was honored to be able to support a lot of Japanese businesses that were having a tough time. It is a relatively small and closed industry - I think some people were like, who is this bearded strange Japanese 30 year old guy who is buying everything. Many stores have closed – probably around 25% over the past 20 years.
We are well known in Japan now and they know what we are after and call me when they have something interesting.There is not a store like us in Japan. We have the largest collection of rare posters [including the rarest of the rare]. Our vision is to provide a Japanese service in perfect English.
The rarest posters we’ve acquired off the top of my head are
Dr. No, From Russia With Love and Goldfinger Billboards [only known copy]
Godzilla 1954
Godzilla 1955 [both versions, the chihoban version is exceedingly rare]
The Hidden Fortress 1958 [two panel poster and only known copy to exist] – Lucas based Star Wars on this Kurosawa classic
Empire Strikes Back, withdrawn concept poster [only 12 more or less are known to exist]
2001: A Space Odyssey B0 Size [probably one of a few that still exist].
Seven Samurai [teaser version] – it is probably 10 times rarer than the already ultra rare Seven Samurai poster.
A 1954 ultra rare chihoban poster
How does the Japanese buyer differ from the rest of the world when it comes to products?
People in Japan generally do not collect posters. The collectors here are after pamphlets. In Japan, these are sometimes FAR more expensive than posters. There is not a culture of displaying art in homes here – they are generally too small.
As a Westerner, I would WAY rather have a poster in a frame in my house than a super expensive pamphlet. The only pamphlet I have is for the original Godzilla 1954 film. This is super rare and a coveted collectors item.
Check the Sabukaru Online Store for rare pamphlets.
Even though posters seem to be a more recent collector’s phenomenon, when people do decide to splurge on a poster in Japan, what are they looking for? How does this differ from Western collectors' tastes?
Some items in Japan that are SUPER top end like “Tokyo Story” by the legendary director Ozu however, this wpuldn’t really have a lot of demand in the West. Another example is “Ugetsu” by the legendary director Mizoguchi.
These directors are definitely appreciated in the West, but collectors aren’t after them the same way buyers are in Japan. When Godard was asked what his favorite director ever is he said “Mizoguchi, Mizoguchi, Mizoguchi” [both these posters in Japan are thousands of dollars and sometimes a lot more for a rare variant]. You would need to be a serious Western collector, AND a film buff with deep pockets to acquire these.
Poster for Tokyo Story
It seems like the die-hards are looking for old movie posters from iconic movies from older times out there. But isn’t it becoming harder to source these?
Generally pre-WW2 posters are non-existent in Japan. Most were recycled for the war effort or destroyed during the catastrophic bombing campaigns in 1945. If you find for example a “King Kong” or “Metropolis” pre-war poster it is similar to winning the lottery.
King Kong X Godzilla Poster
The Japanese edition of a Metropolis poster
The streetwear and fashion world is no stranger to fake items; how is the poster world affected? How do you weed out the fakes?
There’s fakes. Lots of them. Especially on Yahoo Auction. It is a counterfeiters dream to sell to someone in Europe or America and it happens all the time – without mentioning and particular sellers have seen it over and over again. For one second, let's imagine the return process – language barrier, takes two weeks or longer to arrive there, cross border transactions.. nightmare. The more the prices go up the more people get involved – it's like anything really.
We describe in detail how we authenticate posters on our website. But when something is flowing in your blood like posters are in mine, you know immediately – its usually obvious. The covenant of the seller is key – I have an offline network across Japan – mostly people in the business for over 30 years, sometimes multi-generational. These people are the most trustworthy and knowledgeable people I know with a lifetime of experience about this specific industry. I absorbed and learnt so much from them like a sponge and am eternally grateful.
After being in the business for a while they are a couple pretty reliable ways we authenticate posters. For example, posters from around the 1960s have an eirin number which says the date the poster was printed using showa date system. Pre 1960s we have a library of poster books to refer to for dates. The internet is also a good source. Of course everything is all in Japanese.
We witnessed a few galleries hosting special poster events and pop ups over last year, it seems like popular culture merchandise are being viewed more and more as a serious art form and investment. Do you feel this shift in posters being recognized? Like, instead of selling just merchandise your selling actual “art”?
We have items that are $50 USD and some that are $50,000 USD. A lot of the above has been focused on the high end super rarities – these are definitely art, these are collectors items and strong investments. The return you can earn on investing in these pieces is substantial and posters can be considered the same as investing in any other asset class.
I'm 30 and most of my friends are investing in dogecoin or some shit, I like to touch, smell, see and smell things – the posters are not just a financial investment, there is a lot of emotion involved. I like to imagine how the fuck did this survive and how many hands has it been through, and what was its journey? Because of those reasons, posters are tangible and increasing in value over time I think they are art but also an investment.
What is the future of our shop? Do you have any ideas of expanding in a new direction?
In 2023, we will be opening a physical gallery where we will display our largest posters. We will have the best inventory of Japanese posters in the world. It is great to buy things online, but nothing can replace bricks and mortar, nothing can replace seeing things with your own eyes, and using all your senses.
Interview by Adrian Bianco
Edited by Ora Margolis
Photos by Stefania Lehman
