Those of you who visit regularly know that I am a fan of clever transit poster art and of Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock printing. I recently stumbled upon this series of posters from the Tokyo region Seibu Railways that I absolutely love.

“Please let others sit comfortably.”

The poster campaign is designed to educate their straphangers on proper train etiquette and manners. Given the surge in tourism in Japan recently, the train company decided to create their posters in an ukiyo-e inspired style.

Given the immense popularity of the traditional Japanese woodblock prints, the posters are meant to appeal to both locals and foreigners.

Seibu Railways has been releasing a new poster roughly every new season and so far three different posters have been released*. In Japanese they’re given the title denshanai meiwaku zue (電車内迷惑図絵) which is consistent with traditional ukiyo-e naming conventions and translates roughly to “picture of train car nuisance.”

You can find them in Seibu Railway stations, as well inside some of the trains. I’m looking forward to discovering the posters in the wild when I visit Tokyo this Spring.