Thematic : Umbrellas On Stamps.

Winnie the Pooh paddling with Christopher Robin, in a make-shift canoe. A. A. Milne's (1882-1956) stories were inspired by his son Christopher Robin and the many stuffed animals he had, and especially by Winnie, the bear in London Zoo. One in a set of Pooh stamps of 2010. See also earlier Pooh adventures on pages 1 and 3. A sketch by Ernest Shepard (1879-1976), who illustrated the original stories.

Hi Kris,




This is a work by Taizi Harada, born in 1940. He is renowned for his landscape pictures with delicate, naive touch, and have contributed to a series of "Furusato" (hometown) stamps. This stamp is from the 5th series of "Furusato - the landscape in your heart" series, and entitled as "Flowers in the Rain" showing the landscape of Tone-gun, Gun-ma prefecture.

There is an dedicated museum in Suwa city, Nagano prefecture. Some of his paintings from the museum web page;

http://www.taizi-artmuseum.jp/gallery/

Hydrangeas ("Aji-Sai" in Japanese) is a symbol of rainy season ("Tsu-yu") during June and July. Beautiful design, mom and her pretty little daughter on their way back to home in the rainy dusk... Thanks for posting.

- Hironobu

Hello, Hironobu, Thanks for the info! This must be another one of Taizi Harada's paintings, I found it on the museum site you mentioned. Such wonderful blue.

And this must be the other stamp with a painting by T. Harada.

Hallo Kris, herzliche grusse aus Japan !

Thanks for the nice Harada stamps with umbrellas, very very pretty indeed. I never recognized that there were so many Japanese stamps with umbrella, and it's so interesting. If there's any unknown thing about Japanese stamps, I would love to solve any problem. Please keep on posting !

- Hironobu

There was a short period of only about 15 months following WW2 in which separate German provinces issued their own stamps. West Saxony surrounding the city of Leipzig issued stamps for the Leipzig trade fair (Messe) which took place as early as May 1946. The Old Town Hall is shown in a picture which dates from an earlier year because the building was badly damaged during the war and there weren't any people enjoying an afternoon coffee there in 1946. An old postcard shows the cafes and shops at the Rathaus.


Hello Hironobu, Glad that you liked them! I don't know much about Japanese stamps, these were hiding in my album of art on stamps. Surely you know of more! Have a good weekend. K.

Checked my collection and found some more Japanese stamps.

- International Letter Writing Week 1970. Yokkaichi Post Office in "Tokyo-Fuka-Meisho-Zukushi" (something like "Collection of Famous Places in Tokyo Prefecture") by Utagawa Hiroshige III.





Original engraving preserved in Postal Museum of Japan.

http://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/he...g/245340/1/1

-Hironobu

Contribution from Japan;

- International Letter Writing Week 1972. Eitai Bridge in "Tokyo-Fuka-Meisho-Zukushi" (something like "Collection of Famous Places in Tokyo Prefecture") by Utagawa Hiroshige III.




Interesting to see that the lady on the left is holding a traditional Japanese umbrella, whereas the gentleman on the right has a western style umbrella; a nice example of cultural transition during the Meiji era.

-Hironobu

A small gentleman, all bundled up and carrying a large package seems to be almost blown away in the Lithuanian snow flurries. This is actually a Christmas stamp, but even this Easter weekend, 2018, snow is predicted for Baltic regions.

Hello, Hironobu, I knew you would find some more - the Eitai Bridge is obviously the old one. When was it replaced? K.

Hello Kris,

Yes I did find a couple of Japanese stamps, and they will be coming soon




It seems that the bridge on the stamp is before Meiji 30 (1897), when the bridge has been replaced by steel bridge. The present bridge has been built on 1928.

I found a lithograph of Eitai bridge around Meiji 7 or 8 (1874 or 1875), and the design of the bridge does match the one on the stamp. Here again, many people with umbrellas !



- Hironobu

An endless source of plots with umbrellas and bridges is Japanese ukiyo-e engravings. Engraving from Ando Hiroshige's album "53 Hokkaido stations", 45 station Shono, the pedestrian tries to hide under a large straw umbrella

At the beginning of the past century, Easter greetings were most often sent on picture post cards featuring sweet scenes of chicks, bunnies and children. I found a scan of this one (1903) on the web, Happy Easter.

(Beautiful new additions from Russia and Japan!!, I wonder what Rod would say? K.)

This one in French:

And one in English (they are having rough weather there this year).

Very nice Alexey....