🖼️ Art Inspector: Cool Meiji Baby Bottle

Oh my god, a baby in a Japanese art print that does not look like a creepy old man. It’s a beautiful day.

The text on it says,

Even if it drinks
only a little milk,
a bottle-fed baby will grow up healthy.

This print was drawn by Toyohara Kunichika in 1890. Either a mother or nurse is feeding the baby using a bottle instead of doing it the natural way.

This baby bottle design originated from England, and by 1890 it would have been well-known in Japan. The bottle is glass, with a rubber tube that connects to a bone mouthpiece and rubber nipple.

At the time, pro-Western supporters were all about bottles over boobs. They encouraged women to feed their babies using these glass feeders because it was what the modern world did. They used powdered milk or liquid cow milk.

On the top left, you see a container with the word miruku (ミルク, milk) on it, containing powdered milk. Next to it is a figurine of an ox lying on a cushion. There was a folk belief that if you rubbed an ox figurine that sat on a pile of pillows, it brought good luck.