Japanese Almanac Without Revenue Stamp Circa 1900's?

I have here what I consider to be a Japanese Almanac circa 1900's, your help is sought in establishing the date of this publication and any relevant details to show that it is an almanac?

I have looked through the publication which is in six sections tied between boards, and did not find a revenue stamp affixed to the front page? I was under the impression that fees/taxes had to be paid by publishers and sellers of almanacs? Between which dates were these revenues stamps in use?









Andrew

Guess : 1882-1884

http://www.isjp.org/static/files/pd...Revenues.pdf

Further reading:

http://ssjp.dk/eng/cal1884/maincalender.htm

rod222

Thanks for the links, nice sites relating to revenues & almanacs.

The almanacs listed look on the second site look much older that the one I have shown?

Maybe Hironobu will see this posting and help to solve the date period?

Andrew

Andrew,

Yet another surprise from your collection !

Let me start from what I see in your posted images;

- the first image is the front page literally saying "Simplified Almanac from Taisho 9 onwards", with the owner's name (Mr Mori-zou Takeda), Taisho 9 = 1920.

- the second image; the right should be the last page of Taisho 11 (1922) almanac and the left is the front page of Taisho 12 (1923) almanac,

- the third page is the first and second page of Taisho 12 almanac (see URL below)

http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/...05&__lang=en

For conversion of Japanese year to western year, this Web page should be quite useful.

http://www.sljfaq.org/cgi/date.cgi

- Hironobu

As for the Almanacs stamps.

According to 2016 Hasegawa catalogue (p. 106) and 1981 Shimomura catalogue (p.95), the Meiji government intended to control the issuance of almanacs and initiated the usage of certificate chops from Meiji 2 (1869) almanacs.

The almanac stamps then replaced the certificate chops from Meiji 10 (1880) almanacs to Meiji 17 (1884) almanacs.

The issuance of almanacs were transferred to Ise shrine office ("Jin-Gu Shi-Chou") on Meiji 15 (1882), so the almanac stamps for Meiji 16 and 17 bears the inscription of the shrine office.

The almanac stamps seem to be discontinued from Meiji 18 almanacs onwards, although I couldn't find any clear explanation or official announcement on its discontinuation. However, the Meiji almanacs preserved at the National Diet Library clearly shows this transition;

Meiji 17 almanac, with almanac stamp (1882 series);

http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/...82&__lang=en

Meiji 18 almanac, without almanac stamp;

http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/2535383

Meiji 19 almanac, without almanac stamp;

http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/2535384


FYI, the almanacs are still published by Ise Shrine, and retain the historical format. Here's the image for this year (2017, left) and next year (2018, right).

http://www2.jingu125.info/wp-conten...1021-129.jpg

Yes, there's plenty of things for me to learn ... thanks for this opportunity Andrew !

- Hironobu

Digital archives of almanacs with certificate chops and almanac stamps from National Diet Library:

- Up to Meiji 9 with certificate chops (Meiji 7, 8 and 9)

http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/2535366

http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/2535367

http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/2535369

- Meiji 10 to 15 with almanac stamps (1876 issue)

http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/2535370

http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/2535372

http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/2535373

http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/2535375

http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/2535378

http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/2535380

- Meiji 16 and 17 with almanac stamps (1882 issue)

http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/2535381

http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/2535382


Hironobu

Hironobu, Thanks you for responding.




I don't know if I can call my pending box a collection, but I suppose its more of an accumulation of what I considered interesting bit of papers & documents awaiting further research. I am glad that I kept these.

Thanks for clarifying the date/dates of the almanacs.




So what I have are simplified almanacs for the years 1922-1927 collated into one book.

I had added a further scan, please could you confirm that I am reading the dates on the almanacs correctly

The right side of the scan shows the back page for the year 1926 and the left side is the title page for the year 1927?



I will look at the links you mentioned to try and familiarise myself with these almanacs. I will need to further look into my pending file as I do recall seeing recently a few more almanacs but these may be single year only.


Andrew

Andrew, just a quick reply.

The right page says "Distributed (at) Taisho 12 / Jingu-Jimbu office", thus should be the last page of Taisho 13 almanac.

The left page (the front page) says "Simplified Taisho 14 almanac".

- Hironobu

No, the dates in your last image are Taisho 12 (1923) on the right and Taisho 14 (1925) on the left.

(Never mind. Hironobu beat me to it with a more complete answer.)

Thanks you Hironobu & Erilaz for your input.

It is clear to me now, I can work out the rest of the dates on the other almanacs.

Andrew

Andrew and all,

Getting inspired and motivated by the interesting posts, I fortunately have succeeded to acquire an almanac from Meiji period with almanac certificate stamp.



Simplified bound almanac of Meiji 10 (1877). Although not in a very good condition, with stains on the front, scissor cut perfs and tears on the stamp, this is my very first item in this field and I am quite happy to be the proud owner of this 140 years old booklet. I am also happy that, presumably due to the rather bad looking, the BIN price was pretty much affordable (less than USD10 incl. postage)

(Note; the oval red cachet on the lower right is presumably a private chop of the owner)

The detailed information on the announcement of the usage of this almanac stamp and its discontinuation became clear with the aid of Web page of Ephemeris Computation Office, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and also the digital archives from National Diet Library Digital Collections, which made me possible to write up this album page.



It seems that the Meiji 17 and 18 almanacs with 1882 issue are pretty scarce.

The simplified sheet almanacs with the small format stamps seem also to be even more scarce, regardless of the year of issue.

This survey indeed have helped me to extend my knowledge on the almanac stamps and the almanacs themselves. I would like to appreciate Andrew and all who showed interest in this topic for this opportunity.

- Hironobu

A big thank you to Hironobu for sharing his knowledge on the subject I am sure that I write on behalf of all readers who have viewed this topic.

I am most impressed with the write up on the display page with the almanac revenue stamp . Wow, what a pleasing layout and method of displaying the almanac - thank you for showing.

Unfortunately at present I only have almanacs without the stamps, which are not as interesting as the ones with. Nevertheless I am pleased that I have shared these images of my almanacs and the input has been rewarding.

Just returning to a previous post of mine. I thought that I would be able to sort out the dates of the six almanacs. It has proved difficult, but I think that I have finally sorted them out ?

Here are the six almanacs showing the title pages only which I have numbered 1-6, with my guess work as to the years?




1. Taisho 9 (1920)
2. Taisho 10 (1921)
3. Taisho 11 (1922)
4. Taisho 12 (1923
5. Taisho 13 (1924)
6. Taisho 14 (1925)


and now the final four almanacs numbered 7-10 I have, please help with dates




One final query, is that the publishers seal 'Ise Shrine' below?



Andrew

Your dates for 1-6 are correct.

7. Showa 6 (1931)
8. Taisho 15 (1926) [1926 is also Showa 1, since the Showa Emperor's reign began on December 25th]
9. Showa 3 (1928)
10. Taisho 16 (1927) [But when 1927 actually arrived, it was called Showa 2]

Yes, that appears to be the Ise Shrine seal. Nelson's kanji dictionary glosses that combination of characters as "Shinto shrine; Ise Shrines".

Thanks erilaz for confirming the dates of the almanacs.

Now comes the hard part, trying to write up a display page.

Andrew