The Graduate School of Letters, Hokkaido University is hosting a special exhibition titled "Tobacco Packaging that Carves Memories: The World Gazing at the Golden Kite and the Dove," planned and produced by Associate Professor Takayo Hisai and students from the Museum Studies Laboratory. Using Associate Professor Hisai's collection as the main material, the exhibition introduces tobacco packaging from a historical and cultural perspective.

This exhibition focuses primarily on cigarette packaging from the Meiji period to the prewar Showa period, and while displaying actual cigarette packaging, particularly from the late Meiji period onwards, it explores the evolution of design, its connection to war, the symbolism of plants and animals in design, and the memories and recollections surrounding tobacco.
For example, Golden Bat, which was Japan's longest-selling brand until recently, was forced to change its name to Kinji due to the wartime regime's policy of rejecting enemy languages. Kinji is a golden kite, which, as described in the Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan), aided Emperor Jimmu in his eastern expedition, and was adopted for the design as a symbol of victory in war. After the war, the name was restored to Golden Bat, and people say this signaled the end of the war.
As such, each cigarette package from that time has its own story, and we believe that the connection to war in particular is something worth reconsidering this year, marking 80 years since the end of the war.

Whether you smoke or not, whether you like it or not, why not take a fresh look at cigarettes from a different perspective and learn about the cultural history of cigarette packaging, which we don't usually pay much attention to or have the opportunity to learn about?