Japan Or China What Is It?

Found it in a box of covers , any idea what is it and what it says?

First off, it's Japanese. I can't read the handwritten portion, but it would appear to be some sort of internal memo or label from a post office. The printed line at the top reads (from right to left): tsuushin jimu, meaning "communication affairs," "correspondence business," etc. The two lines in large type at the bottom read: Nagano-ken Kamishima yuubinkyoku "Nagano Prefecture, Kamishima Post Office."

Judging from the forms of some of the characters and the direction of writing, this would be from the 1940s or earlier.

Thanks erilaz, that was very helpfull, Lets hope someone will be able to read the handwritten portion.

My guess, but it's just that, is that this is an envelope that a telegram would've come in.

I *think* the large handwritten characters are the recipient's name, and the smaller handwriting is the address.


What does a scan of the backside show?
But that's all simply hypothesis.

There is nothing on the back, it is a one sided paper or label.

It doesn't look like a name and address to me. For one thing, I don't see any numbers in it. Furthermore, the first of the large handwritten characters appears to be kyoku "office, bureau," the same character we see in "post office" at the bottom (second line, character at far left). We'll have to wait for confirmation from one of our Japanese members, but I think the bottom two characters of the handwritten line on the left might be the name Ishimoto.

You may be right about the address. It's true that there are no numbers, but I thought I saw a couple of other kanji that were often used in addresses, but now that I think about it, that can also be used in organizations (like "section").

So I'll just shut up and sit this one out.

I'm sorry I speculated at all. (The older I get, the wronger I seem to be.)

I won't contribute on here anymore unless I know something for certain. It's unlikely anything having to do with the Japanese language will ever fall into that category.

It looks like a postal routing slip/label, though the minimal characters on it are atypical for that. Postal ones are usually glued at the top to the face of an incoming cover from a foreign country (like the US) where a translation into Japanese of the destination and recipient has been made.

Whoops, I just noticed a mistake in what I wrote earlier. It should be "Kamishina" instead of "Kamishima". I miscopied from my handwritten note.

Here's the location of the current Kamishina Post Office, Ueda City, Nagano Prefecture: https://map.japanpost.jp/p/search/d...00111166000/

Hi,

The handwriting says;

-Center (the big letters): "Mr Postmaster"
- left top(two letters in bracket): "Request"
- left lower(four letters in bracket): "Telegram enclosed"

Hironobu

Thanks unechan.

That solves all the mystery