Japanese advertisement for Chiarini Circus from the 1886 tour of the country. The advertisement is made of two nishiki-e wood block prints pasted together, produced by Ookura Shiroubee (大倉四郎兵衛), a jihondoiya (mass printer.) This extremely busy print features a number of western circus acts depicted for a Meiji era Japanese audience. The upper third of the image has a red background, a portion of a circus ring can be seen. Numerous horse-based acts are seen, with male and female riders as well as clowns. The middle third of the print, with a white background, shows other animal acts. From right to left the depicted acts include acrobats, a lion tamer in a cage, elephants, a snake charmer, and a tiger tamer in a cage. The lower third of the print, with a green background, features several more horse acts. In translating western circus concepts for a Japanese audience, those responsible for the poster itself have made several interesting choices. The first is the translation of Chiarini itself. "-ini" itself is an Italian dimmuniative, and the translator(s) have chosen to use the Japanese equivalent, "-ko", rendering the translated name of the group as "Chiari-ko". The text contains pre-script reform characters, as well as kotsugana kana, meaning there are more distinctive syllables present and rendered in the text. In modern Japanese, signs, headlines, and similar large text will be rendered left to right if rendered horizontally. The same holds true for websites. However, all text here is meant to be read right to left, including the largest advertisement text
