---
title: 'Японский Император и его лукавые доброжелатели (The Japanese Emperor and His Cunning Well-Wishers): Russian Russo-Japanese War print'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/japanese-mikado-cunning-well-wishers-1904/
description: A Japanese emperor in full uniform sits a rearing horse at the lip of a cliff while two smiling, jostling figures in national costume, John Bull and…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![Японский Император и его лукавые доброжелатели (The Japanese Emperor and His Cunning Well-Wishers): Russian Russo-Japanese War print](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/japanese-mikado-cunning-well-wishers-1904.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/japanese-mikado-cunning-well-wishers-1904.jpg)

# Японский Император и его лукавые доброжелатели (The Japanese Emperor and His Cunning Well-Wishers): Russian Russo-Japanese War print

A Japanese emperor in full uniform sits a rearing horse at the lip of a cliff while two smiling, jostling figures in national costume, John Bull and Uncle Sam, press against him from behind. The caption calls them the emperor's 'cunning well-wishers' (lukavye dobrozhelateli): the loaded adjective, and the staging that puts the drop at the horse's hooves and the two Western powers at its flank, cast Britain and the United States as the hidden pushers of Japan's war.

- **Date:** 1904
- **Period:** [Pre-1914](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=pre-1914)
- **Made by:** Commercial lithographers of Moscow (Typo-Lithography of V. V. Kudinov, Bolshaya Yakimanka), wartime patriotic print of the Russian Empire
- **Region:** [Eastern Europe and Eurasia](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=eastern-europe-eurasia)
- **Country:** [Russian Empire](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=russian-empire)
- **Medium:** [Print](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=print)
- **Issuer type:** [Mixed](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=mixed)
- **Regime:** [Russian Empire](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=russian-empire)
- **Leader:** [Nicholas II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=nicholas-ii)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Demonize](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=demonize)
- **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Empire and colonialism](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=empire-colonialism)
- **Event:** [Russo Japanese War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=russo-japanese-war)
- **Techniques:** [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/) [Scapegoating](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/scapegoating/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Японский_микадо_и_его_лукавые_доброжелатели._1904-1905.jpg), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (published 1904; Commons: PD-Russia-expired) Unknown artist, Typo-Lithography of V. V. Kudinov, Moscow, 1904; via Wikimedia Commons.

## Text on the object

Original (Russian) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
Японскій Императоръ
и его лукавые доброжелатели.

Типо-Литографія В. В. Кудинова. Москва, Бол. Якиманка.
[small imprint line at bottom left, illegible]
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
The Japanese Emperor
and his cunning well-wishers.

Typo-Lithography of V. V. Kudinov. Moscow, Bolshaya Yakimanka.
[small imprint line at bottom left, illegible]
```

Pre-1918 orthography is kept as printed (hard signs at word ends, 'ій'). A small imprint line at the bottom left, probably the censorship or printing notice, is too small to read at the committed resolution.

[← ¡¡Glorias de México!! Porfirio Díaz y Ramón Corral, electos por el voto unánime del pueblo (Glories of Mexico!! Porfirio Díaz and Ramón Corral, Elected by the Unanimous Vote of the People)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/glorias-de-mexico-diaz-corral-1904/) [1904 Meiji Japan Navy: Seventy-Seven Brave Soldiers Decide to Die →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/port-arthur-blockships-1904/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Exit Liberté a la Francois! or Buonaparte closing the Farce of Egalité, at St. Cloud (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/exit-liberte-buonaparte-gillray-1799/) (Nov 21, 1799 · Name-calling)