Japan's First Postage Stamps

Sometimes I hate myself. There I was eating a bag of popcorn watching a recorded episode of DCI Banks (British police drama) wondering just what the heck my next topic could be, when I though - hey! Let's briefly write about Japan's first postage stamp(s).

So I pulled out an old Sakura Catalog of Japanese Stamps price guide I have and looked it up. Nice! Four stamps issued in 1871 - I'll write about that with some photo images to accompany it - done in 40 minutes.

Then I thought - who was involved in the creation of the Japanese postage stamps - and I was screwed.

Welcome to your history of the Japanese Postage Stamp.

I know - most of you are wondering just what a postage stamp is. Well, back when the world was still cooking dinosaurs like myself used to mail letters - e-mails written on paper - and would place them in envelopes (similar to a DVD case but made entirely out of paper) (Paper is converted from trees - I know, I know, I must be mad. No one would do that!)... anyways, the envelopes would then have something called a postage stamp applied to the envelope. People would purchase stamps for an appropriate amount that would pay for the cost of the envelope to be mailed to another country.

The envelope (and many others) would be picked up by a mail van, taken to a sorting station, separated by country and then sent to an airport where the envelope(s) would fly across the oceans to their country of destination. From there the envelopes would be resorted and would eventually make their way to the intended recipient.

Exactly like e-mail - only faster, cheaper and without a lot of actual physical travel. Snail mail.

I thought it fantastic when once I received a package from Toronto, Canada to my home in Ohtawara-shi, Tochigi-ken, Japan in only three days. A week or more seemed to be the norm.

I know - how the hell did people stand it? And even then back between 1990-1993 in Japan, I used to actually marvel at the speed - thinking back to how slow things were 100 years earlier, when letters were sailed across the oceans and by rail (train) and van and then mailman... things could literally take weeks and weeks.

So... here's your history lesson. It begins with that guy in the photo at the top of this blog.

Back in 1870 a Japanese gentleman named Maejima Hisoka (surname first)... no wait... it begins before that.

On January 24, 1835, a Japanese gentleman named Ueno Fusagoro was born in Shimoikebe, Echigo-ken or what is now present-day Joetsu-shi, Niigata-ken. Name change numbers 1 & 2.

In 1866, he was apparently adopted in the Maejima family. Heck... he was 31!

Okay, even though his Ueno family was a rich rice farming family in Echigo-ken, Ueno had gone to university in Edo (now Tokyo - name change #3) and studied the West, as it had all been recently opened up by Commodore Perry (see that story unfold in my blog HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and more in the future).

In 1866, armed with a lot of western knowledge, the Maejima family thought Ueno would make a mighty addition to their family clan, and officially adopted him. The Maejima family was a vassal family of the Shogun, the official leader of Japan, so this was a step up in the bureaucratic ladder for Maejima nee Ueno (name change #4).

Now... although Japan did not yet have it's own post office, there were several foreign post offices on its soil, including a British one in Yokohama opened in 1859, Nagasaki in 1860 and Kobe in 1869 (all closed in 1879). France had a post office in Yokohama between 1865-1880 in which French stamps were used.. The United States also had post offices in Yokohama and Nagasaki (1867), Kobe (1868) and Hakodate in 1871 (all closing in 1874).

And so... with all of these foreign post offices on its land, Japan thought about having its own postal service.

So in 1870 Maejima visited London and learned all he could about the British postal system - and why not? The Brits did invent the postal service as early as 1680.

Returning in 1871, Maejima was named the Head of Transport and Communications and Superintendent of Transport and Communications and worked to form Japan's modern postal service now under a Shogun-less Japan, with a proper Emperor back in charge of things.

On April 20, 1871, a set of four stamps were issued by Japan - a set of hand-engraved (etched) stamps called the Dragon Series (The Japanese word for dragon is 'ryu' and is NOT pronounced rye-you... it's a d and r cross that I haven't a hope in hell of pronouncing for you on paper, but it is used as a symbol in 'rew' - the last half of my FIRST name). Okay... see this link for what it should sound like: HERE.

48 Mon ryu stamp.

Featuring a two-color design, the stamps consisted of a brown 48 Mon; navy blue 100 Mon; orange 200 Mon; and green 500 Mon denomination.

Unless one takes a very close look at it, these stamps look like the dogs breakfast - not very artistic at all... but they are!

100 Mon ryu stamp.

Each stamps has a pair of dragons facing each other (hence the name of 'Dragon series') and has the actual value of the stamp printed in black ink featuring Japanese Kanji characters.

There are two varieties of the 48 Mon stamp... if you look at the diamond-shapes along the interior of the stamp above... you'll notice that the dots are colored in... apparently there is a rare-ish printers flaw in which the dots are not colored in with black in.

200 Mon ryu stamp.

The 100 Mon stamps has differing versions of a claw, while the 200 Mon stamps have a variation of a dot or no dot in the top left corner of the outer maze, and the 500 Mon has a kink in the 'arrow' in the bottom right corner of the outer maze.

The intriguing thing about these stamps was the fact that the monetary denomination was in something called the 'Mon'. It was part of a monetary system in Japan from 1336 until 1870... which if you have been paying attention was a year before these stamps were issued in 1871.

By 1871, the Mon had been superseded by the Yen (name change #5). So, it seems these stamps are redundant even before they were issued.

500 Mon ryu stamp.

I also want to point out that when I started this whole 'name change' nonsense - it was a joke as I had only realized at that time that Maejima had a name change - and did not know of all the others. I just wanted to show my accidental genius. But you knew that, didn't you, sweetheart? Apparently I now like talking to myself.

Anyhow... and there you have my simple blog that I had hoped would take 30 minutes to do, and here I am 1-1/2 hours later. I could use some more popcorn...

Cheers
Andrew Joseph