Japan Reprints ? Help Wanted

This is a modern item, 1961 and appears to be a souvenir sheet containing reprints of 1871. It is not listed in Scott, even as a note.

They are finely printed by a plate (ink can be felt as raised)on thin, vertically laid paper. The reverse is not gummed and there is a pair of characters printed so that it appears in the centre of each stamp. Colours appear to match those of the original issue.










The sheet is contained in a folded paper with printing on the front and, from what I can deduce, information about the issue printed on the inside of the paper.

The characters on the backs of the stamps mean 'Imitation'.

The front of the sheet is headed '90th Anniversary of Postage Stamps'. The line of text below isn't quite clear enough to read in its entirety, but it appears to be referring to the year of issue of the stamps.)

The three characters at the bottom are 'Ministry of Posts & Telecommunications'.

The front page of the folder is headed '90th Anniversary of Postage Stamps' then 'Imitations of Early Japanese Stamps' and at bottom, the name of an organisation which seems to be called something like 'All-Japan Society for the Diffusion of Postage Stamps', and seems to have come under the control of the Diet (Parliament). (All the references to it are rather dated - nothing recent.)

The inside reads
Imitations of the recess-printed stamps for the then new era of postal operations, prepared as samples by the Ministry of Posts & Telecommunications to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the stamps.
Cherry Blossom/Sakura stamps on washi (Japanese native paper)
The copper plates for Japan's first stamps, the so-called Dragon stamps, became worn and unusable, and so were replaced with stamps of new designs, featuring the Sakura crest.
1 Sen green, issued 20 July 1872
2 Sen brown-pink, same
½ Sen [not sure of the colour], issued 1 September 1873
4 Sen pink, issued 1 April 1874
2 Sen yellow, issued 5 June 1873

Half Sen is considered "red-brown" by
Yokiti Yamamoto 1940

Correction.
footnote says colour descriptions are all adopted
from Scott's catalogue, 1940-1941 edition

The whole thing sounds quite fascinating. I tried googling the names given and, like you, cannot find anything recent. I get the impression that the body is at least semi-official and must have reasonably close ties with the Post Office unless the original dies are in private hands. However, lack of listings along with the "imitation" symbols must mean that it is a private issue and never intended as other than a souvenir of some sort.

Anybody else out there who might know a bit more about this issue? Who authorized it? How it was distributed?

All I can add is the commemoration day annivesary lies on the 20th April
In 1934 a minisheet was issued
with a series of air post stamps.

These "souvenir sheets" sold exclusively at the
Post Office temporarily opened at the Postal Culture
exhibition in the Postal Museum.

Unsure if they are listed in Gibbons.

It looks fairly official to me: it has the imprimatur of the Ministry of Posts, and this other organisation that was involved also seems to have an official connection. (It was a shadan hojin - a quango. There must be one of these for about every second person in Japan, and they provide well-paid employment for retired politicians and civil servants. In the early 1960s, from when this sheet dates, the quango system was already in full force.)

I couldn't find the relevant character used to describe the colour in my dictionary, Rod. Most likely oversight and/or laziness on my part, but it's just possible it's very old and obscure, and has dropped out of use in the meantime.

Looking at the catalogue, I see there was a ¥10 commemorative for the 90th anniversary of the postal service issued on the 20 April 1961. Maybe the folder and imitations were produced in conjunction with the festivities.

At the very least, the imitations couldn't have been intended for postal use. ½ sen wouldn't have got a letter very far by 1961

For the less read readers, including myself

QUANGO (also see QUALGO = local govt)

'quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation' was created in 1967

That doesn't mean they did not exist in Japan.

I have read Quango before, the name was quite
familiar to me, but I had fogotton what it meant.

The April 1934
commemoration Day of the Department of Communications :

Souvenir Sheet

This is all great information and helps a lot in a general sense. Just strange that even those with good resources at their disposal do not find any mentions of this piece. Are items like this, and I mean rather poorly documented "Official" .... I am groping for a term here ... cinderellas? ephemera? souvenirs? .... stuff, common in Japan?

Officially issued as 'souvenir cards.' There are 10 different sheets to a set. Each sheet has reprints (from the original dies) printed on original type paper. Makes a reference item. There were two printings. The first print run was very small, the backs were not printed with 'imitation' marks. Each sheet comes with a folder (either in Japanese or Japanese & English. The complete sets were also available in souvenir books. Listed in the JSDA catalog.

Reproductions by the JAPAN STAMP PUBLICITY ASSOCIATION 1961-1963. In February of 1963 ,the philatelic agency of Japan issued the last in the series of 10 souvenir sheet reproductions of Japan's 1871-1876 etched stamps .The reproductions are of excellent quality, superior to the originals, in most respects. The ten sheets are of uniform size about 91 by 123 mm on cream or ivory-colored paper.
These sheets were issued by Japan Postage Stamp Publicity Association and authorized by the Ministry of Postal Services . They bear the inscription of the "Ministry of Postal Services" on the face under the stamps .
Each sheet comes in a folder with printing saying that the sheets are in commemoration of the 90th anniversary of posts and that they are reproductions of early Japanese postage stamps issued by the Japan Postage Stamp Publicity Association. Inside the folder,the printing describes the design and colors of the stamps reproduced and the fact they are reproductions .

The reproductions of stamps originally issued on "native paper" are printed on modern laid paper and those originally issued on "foreign paper" are printed on modern wove paper . The stamps are engraved, except for the centers of the Dragon issues : these like the marginal inscriptions on the sheets are lithographed.
These sheets exist {I have both types} both with and without the characters for mokoku {reproduction} printed on the back of each stamp; the characters {when they exist} are arranged vertically on sheets 2&3 and horizontally on sheets 4 though 10 .

First issue

This is the second sheet issued ,it comes in two different types of the folder . Early printings of the folder for Sheet 2 has two typographic errors . On the second page of the folder on the left is a list of denominations {6,10,20,30} in sen. At the right are lines of kanji. Opposite the 6 is a date-- year,month and day in Arabic numbers, 7.1.1, with a kanji after each number . The kanji after the second "1" is incorrect . The next -to-the-last character opposite the 10 is also incorrect . I don't have the first printing ,I have one copy of the corrected folder .

BACKROADS ---You have the third sheet of the series issued October 25 ,1961 ,on vertically laid paper ,features the Cherry Blossoms .