Japanese Reader Sought
 

Are any members of this forum able to read Japanese? I am assuming that the two cards below actually are in Japanese?

Can anybody tell me exactly what these cards are, and what are the fancy postmarks?

Thanks in advance.

Well, if nobody can read these cards, can anybody confirm that they are Japanese, rather than from say China?

In my opinion they are Japanese - historically the characters were identical in Japanese and written Chinese, but the clue is the use of the chrysanthemum in the design - that I believe is a Japanese tradition.

I sent images of these to a friend in Tokyo, he thinks the “10.7.1” refers to the 10th year of Showa (AD 1935), although it could equally be the 10th year of Meiji, Taisho etc. I’m hoping he can give more info, but he seems to think they are definitely from Japan. I’ll keep you posted.

Graham

Just had a look in an old Stanley Gibbons catalogue, can't see this as a specific Japanese stamp but its very similar to lots of pre war designs and as Mike says they all have the chrysanthemum in the design.

Rob

One of my work team has a Japaneses spouse and speaks some Japanese himself.

I have had them look at these and here is their input.

Postcards from pre war Japan. Time period for both look like Showa period....these particular ones are about 1935.

First one was mailed from Guma prefecture. Cost was about 1.5 yen to mail. Emperor seal is the chrysanthemum. Samurai on horse back was Kusunori Masashige, Kamakura period born in 1129. Know for strategic tactics on the battlefield.


The second one was mailed from Nagano. Second seems to show some German influence.....maybe a German village with hiker.

John

My mate got back to me with a little more information, the locations agree with those John's friends gave.

Here is his message:

"I am sure this is from Japan because the green letters above say 「郵便はがき」（"postal card"）in Japanese. You should read the letters on the card from the right to the left. And the price of the stamp is 0.015 yen.

Unfortunately I could not tell the details of the postmarks (red circles with dates and pictures). The left one says Gunma（群馬）prefecture and the right is from Nagano（長野）prefecture.
Each of the mark has more letters but unfortunately I could not read them all.

I guess the postmark on the right card was stamped at a post office on/near mountains in Nagano. It seems like a climbing memorabilium. There are post offices on the top of some high mountains in Japan like Mt. FUji and such offices offer special postmark for climbers. I guess the right postmark is one of them."

Hope this helps - it's interesting to find out what they are, but also that Japanese has changed so much that a native speaker has difficulty in deciphering it. That said, presumably postmarks in Japan, as elsewhere, have an abbreviated version of the location which would be difficult for all but someone in the know to read.

Graham

Many thanks to all who have replied to this thread, in particular to those who "went the extra mile" and made enquiries of their own.

How did we ever manage in the days before the internet? Other than putting stuff in the "unknown" box for 20 years!

Thanks again to all concerned.