Golden Rooster 金雞宗記 Vintage Chinese-Japanese Matchbox Label Women's Crop Tee | Meiji Era Archive

The Story

金雞宗記. The Golden Rooster. Guaranteed genuine price and quality.

This label is one of the most visually joyful pieces in the entire Ichinichi archive  a proud rooster in full iridescent plumage, set inside a sky-blue circle on a sunflower-yellow ground, surrounded by six Chinese seal characters in crimson medallions. The composition is pure pre-war Asian commercial graphic design at its most confident and its most alive.

The label sits at the intersection of Chinese merchant culture and Japanese printing craft , a bilingual commercial object produced for Chinese-speaking markets across Southeast Asia, rendered with the flat-color precision and fine line engraving that made Meiji and Taisho-era Japanese label printing the gold standard of its time. The rooster, in Chinese tradition, is a symbol of punctuality, confidence, and good fortune. On this label, it's also just a beautifully drawn bird.

Against every colorway it works differently. On black it glows like a festival lantern. On pink the yellow and teal sing together. On natural it reads like a textile rediscovered. On white it's pure graphic pop , a hundred years old and completely current.

Who This Is For

For the woman drawn to Chinese and Japanese vintage aesthetics, Lunar New Year rooster symbolism, and the kind of graphic that carries genuine cultural depth beneath its immediate visual charm. This is the crop tee for the Chinese heritage fashion lover, the vintage Asia collector, the maximalist dresser who appreciates saturated color with real historical roots.

It also simply photographs beautifully — the label's yellow, teal, and crimson palette is made for natural light.

About the Collection

Every design in the Ichinichi Collection is sourced from a personal archive of original Japanese matchbox labels spanning 1880 to 1940. The Chinese-market labels are among the most colorfully vibrant pieces in the archive — designed for Chinese merchant communities across Southeast Asia, printed in Japan with extraordinary attention to color harmony and cultural detail.

Available Colors

• Black — the golden yellow and sky blue radiate against the dark ground, festival energy
• Pink — warm and celebratory, echoes the label's crimson seal tones beautifully
• Natural — aged cream gives the label the warmth of a found folk art print
• White — clean and graphic, the full saturated palette hits with maximum impact

Product Details

• Material: 100% organic cotton
• Weight: 5.9 oz/yd² (200 g/m²) — medium weight, soft and breathable
• Fit: Slim / crop fit — close to body, cropped hem
• Print: Direct-to-Film (DTF) technology
• Label: Tear-away — minimal skin irritation

SIZE GUIDE (inches)

Size tolerance: ±1.00 in across all measurements. Slim fit — size up if you prefer a more relaxed crop.