Vintage Japanese Tin Drum with Dressed Animals Marching with Flags

These tin drums are a Japanese market item and were made anywhere from the 1920's until the 1960's. Used by children marching in the many festivals held in Japan, they came with a small wooden stick with a ball end that would strike the drum. Needless to say it was the first part lost.

This possibly pre-war Japanese tin drum has a graphic design on each side. The edge of the drum shows dressed comic animals marching with flags. A bull has the American flag, a hippo has the French flag, a lion carries the Italian Flag (pre 1946), a monkey has the Swiss flag, an elephant is carrying the Union Jack while tooting a bugle and a bear is carrying the Japanese flag.

The Japanese often used certain animals to represent specific countries, especially during the era before WW2.  Thus you might see a British Lion, or a Russian Bear. That does not seem to be the case here where the animals are dressed in multi-colored and patterned outfits...the kind we see on early 1950's toys.

The colors on the edge of the drum are very 1950's, with liberal use of turquoise, red , yellow and the cream white. The animals marching with the flags are dressed in wildly miss-matched patterned clothes

Condition on this drum is Very Good. The colors are bright and the surface is shiny. There are some scrapes and chips in the litho, so it was used. Study the photos. Condition is remarkable for the age.

The drum is 4.5 inch (11.5 cm) in diameter with a depth of 1.5 inches (4 cm).