ID Japanese Revenue Stamps

Here are photos of what I've been told are Japanese Revenue Stamps that I've found inside wood cases for vintage Japan telescopes from the 1950's or 1960's.





Can anyone confirm this and tell me what the dates of these stamps are and or any other information written on the stamps. What does the number 18 refer to etc.?

I'm hoping if the stamps have some form of a date, it will help me to tell when the telescopes were sold and or imported to the USA from Japan.

Thanks, Stephen

Hi, Stephen --

Sometimes I can answer the Japanese revenue questions, but I don't think this is one of those times, except to say that they're definitely Japanese, and they look more like seals from a trade or manufacturers' association, as opposed to a government-issued stamp.

I don't think there's any date on them. If 18 were a date, then in this context it would be Showa 18, which is 1943, and I think that's too early. One thing that would confirm that it's post-WW2 is that the writing goes from left to right, which was one of the modernization conventions that got put into place after the end of WW2.

Are both telescopes the same brand? If so, perhaps "18" signifies a particular manufacturer?

Hopefully someone will come along who can provide more than my idle speculation.

-- Dave

I'd say you are probably on the right track, Dave. The bottom arc of the bottom stamp translates (at least in Chinese) roughly to:

Japanese Plywood(?)Industry Union

Hopefully, tonymacg, PostmasterGS... will chime in with the correct translation and everybody can have a chuckle at my expense.

k

Khj is quite right: these are 'passed inspection' labels from the Japan Plywood Manufacturers' Association. There are no dates on the labels.

The '18' is likely to be a member number. It can't be the Showa year, because the Association was only founded in July 1965 (or Showa 40).

Thanks, Khj and Tony! That should help the original poster at least bracket the possible timeframe.

-- Dave