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Japanese retail, explained

Today’s note

Anpanman's creator lettered the wrapping paper

Anpanman's creator lettered the wrapping paper 華ひらく

Mitsukoshi's red wrapping paper was Japan's first original department-store wrap, 1950. The painter Genichiro Inokuma took the motif from two stones he saw being washed by waves at Inubosaki in Chiba; brown paper had been the norm. Drawn for Christmas, it went year-round the following year. The cursive 'mitsukoshi' is by publicity-department designer Takashi Yanase — later Anpanman's creator.

Mitsukoshi