Unidentified Chinese Stamps

Hi, I'm having trouble identifying this pair of stamps. I'm assuming they are from China, but cannot find them in Scott's or online using a reverse image search. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Try Japan .

These are from the first issues of Japan. They may be forgeries. I'm going to go get my references and will report back unless someone beats me to the punch.

Design:
Two Dragons facing each other.
No indication of Nationality on the stamps
Kanzi Script

The dragon (Naga in Sanskrit) originated in Indian Mythology,
in the Orient it is regarded as one of the four sacred animals,
the Kylin,the Phoenix, and the Tortoise.

The Dragon in this stamp is probably the scaled dragon
that is supposed to ascend the heavens in rain.

The Greek fret used for the border (French influence?)
is a pattern symbolic of the motion of a heavenly body,
symbolic of good luck.

Welcome to the forum!

The first stamp, the 5 sen (Scott 8), is genuine. It is position 2 from the single plate. Matching stamps with individual characteristics found in photos of complete sheets proves whether they are genuine or not. Each stamp was separately engraved and is unique for these issues. A very nice find! – you made my day, too. Forgeries of Japan Dragons outnumber the genuine by a lot.

The second stamp, the 48 mon, is a forgery. It doesn't plate/match any genuine stamp. Most obviously the characters are larger than on the originals and not written exactly the same way. It "almost" has the secret mark of two dots in the left lowermost border design as most of the genuine 48 mon have.

Wow, thanks for the speedy and detailed responses! I've been collecting for a long time, but still have a lot to learn. Of course, my mistake for not looking at Japan before posting here, but I learned some useful information in the process.

You are most welcome. There are ALWAYS questions about various aspects of stamps and you can can just try to find your answer in the library old posts using the search, or just ask it outright. Your clear flat images are highly appreciated particularly when we need some kind of detail to make a determination. Be aware that answers are not always provided so fast, so your patience is appreciated as the people with the answers may not always be present.