COVER N. 219 -  JAPAN

Postmark: Hodogaya Kanagawa Japan 15.02.23 

Posted on the  15th February; Received on the 27th February 2023

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1957, reads thee legend on the 10 yen stamp.....stamps can also tell a story of inflation, I guess... look at the size, the quality of the image of the geisha, the immaculate printing, an high end product overall. Now compare it with the round little thingy with a face value that is the octuple of the next door neighbour.... computer designed, computer printed, computer cut... a mass product that must have been comparatively much cheaper to produce (and I don't mean no disrespect to all those involved in its creation, but it suffices to put them side by side, right?)  but which boasts a much higher face value....

Thanks a lot Itoh, I would never think that in 2023, I would be receiving letters posted with 1957 stamps....that's 3 years before I was even around... at a time when I was mere speculation, I guess....

Today, Japan is also a prolific (probably the most prolific?) stamp issuer. Colnet lists no less than 469 entries for the Japanese catalogue in 2022... (although I'm sure there are some multiples in there too....) well, in 1957 these amounted to just 13, the year will less issues since the end of WW2...

Also of note is the fact that a lot of these stamps are designed around comics and cartoon, manga characters, children's toys, simple iconic stuff like food items, or greeting stamps celebrating the seasons of a moment in one's life..... really the type of themes that I think somehow spell MASS, GLOBAL;MARKET and not local, culture, tradition as I expect to see in a stamp. 

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against people liking these themes and collecting all this stuff, but I really couldn't care less when my own postal administration issues stamps themed on  Lord of the Rings or Starwars licensed stuff (even if I have seen most of the films with great pleasure)....

Anyway, back to the over and to its stamps, left to right:

- The 20 Yen stamp with the image of a Silka deer (Cervus Nippon) was issued  on 02FEB2015 as part of a large definitive set dedicated to fauna and flora.

- the already mentioned 10 Yen stamp with a lovely image of a Geisha was the 1957 issue for a series that ran between 1955 and 1967 of 10 Yen stamps with images of characters taken from Japanese paintings. It began to circulate on 01NOV1957.

Minnie and Daisy came from a souvenir sheet with ten 80 Yen self-adhesive stamps dedicated to Disney characters. Issued on 02MAR2012.