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Kirin Beer, 1926

The mythical beast that became a household name.

What

An annual advertising poster for Kirin Beer, part of a run designed by Hokuu Tada across the late 1920s — the kirin (a mythical beast) already doing the branding work it still does today.

Why

Kirin is a live, major global beer brand today — sold here strictly as art history, flagged live throughout.

Notice

How little the brand identity has drifted — the same mythic-beast logic that anchors Kirin's marketing a century later is already fully present here.

“A century of continuity, hung on a wall built mostly from discontinuity.”

Format

The full-resolution, color-managed file — restored honestly, yours to print and keep.

Sized to protect print quality — this scan's resolution doesn't clear our floor for a physical print, so this piece is offered as a digital download only.

Size

$29.00

Provenance

Live mark — art history only

Artist: Hokuu Tada
Country: Japan
Format: Poster (affiche)
Piece published: Kirin Beer — advertising poster, 1926
Source: Kirin Holdings company museum archive

View the public source record ↗

Scan: Kirin Holdings company history archive, hosted on Wikimedia Commons.

Rights: CLEAR. Public domain — U.S. 95-year rule (piece published 1930 or earlier). Gated by the piece’s own publication year, never a brand’s founding year. Cleared by registry on 2026-07-16.

Kirin is a live mark, still on shelves today. This piece is sold strictly as art history — not as marketing, endorsement, or affiliation.