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The article analyzes the images of power and subordinates on postcards of Japan in the 1900s, the last decade of the Meiji period (1868–1912). During this period, the country's government devoted a lot of efforts to creating a united nation and militaristic propaganda. Along with newspapers, magazines, and photographs, postcards take the place of a means of public communication due to the presence of an illustrative part. Therefore, by the beginning of the twentieth century, after the lifting of the ban on images of the emperor, and with the outbreak of the Russian-Japanese war, male, female, and children's images and related subjects on postcards were actively updated in a propaganda manner. They represent the governors, that is, the emperor, his entourage, and employees of Ministries, and construct the desired and approved behavior of the governed, ordinary citizens. The iconographic method of the French historian Jerome Bachet allowed us to identify a series of images based on themes based on gender. The approach of the English sociologist Stuart Hall helps to more accurately analyze the visualization of the system of power relations in the plots of illustrations. The author selected more than twenty postcards for research, which she introduced into scientific circulation. In the article, she shows the main subjects of postcard illustrations, artistic techniques, and highlights the features of image construction in the context of cultural changes in Japan. The images of ordinary soldiers, their wives, and children were reduced in comparison with real life, and demonstrated the necessary qualities to support the country, especially in the military sphere. At the same time, the images are not divorced from reality, the illustrations have a place for everyday details, holidays, joys and sorrows of human life. But the emphasis in the plots is shifting towards loyal sentiments, to demonstrate an idealized image of the country's leaders and slightly rustic, but sincere citizens of the country.