The Beauty Of Japan

I just love this stamp. Such a beauty. We talk about the artisan and design quality of the Italian stamps, but this one is poetic. A great clean minimalist design, subtle text around the main subject, and great colors and cinematic appeal. The artist of the painting could have been a bit more humble with his signature though. I am even tempted to remove it completely from the photo. I think he could have at least chosen a color a bit more cohesive with the background tones. Ego over form I guess.

To me there is a subtlety to art from Japan. It seems there is something there I do not understand or am missing. It is very beautiful and has a power that is somehow surprising.

This from a guy who likes Monet and Renoir all to pieces.

marc-

More nice work. (I'm only halfway home on the stamp itself...)

Is there a chance that the name and year was added by the stamp's graphic designer, and not the underlying artist? It seems out of character for the era.

[Through the miracle of the Internet, here is Okada's signature on another piece... ]

I guess this stamp doesn't really grab that many people. I'm attracted to drama and color. That's why I guess a became a photographer.

Anyway, I shot a couple Japanese stamps depicting characters like this. I need to process the images and then I'll post them. Maybe one of the others will be more captivating to other people as well.

Puzzler,
Pass that popcorn,please. I'm finding that particular image of the geisha shows the subtle beauty and inscrutable character, that all geisha's were taught to master, in that one face. I love the stamps with geisha's and the art that geisha's were portrayed in. I will say that the pinkish/salmon color of the robe may be a little off, but that may be just from what my monitor is showing. I'm looking forward to seeing the other stamps that marcbkk will be posting.

Donna

Marc: a very nice scan of a very nice painting. Thanks for posting it.

I've been collecting Japanese stamps for about 20 years, and it was the artwork and "Japanese-ness" of many of the designs that attracted me. (I was partly a Japanese studies major in college.)

I'm not so wild about most of the stamps produced since about 2000 -- far too many cutesy characters for me, and it seems to have only gotten worse since the privatization of the Japanese Post Office several years ago, although they still let a few nice ones still slip through!

Please continue sharing your reflections.

-- Dave

Nice to see some other people enjoyed that stamp too. I haven't seen any of the recent Japan stamps. I only have stuff from the fifties, sixties, and seventies from my father's collection. Some of it is really nice and some of it not so interesting. Here are a couple more I like too. By the way, no scans, just photos here ;) I also removed the year dates from the stamps after I shot them because I thought the year in such big numbers disturbs the composition of the stamps a bit. The one in the rain is from 1958 and the other one of the woman in the blue dress is from 1972. Enjoy...

The early National Parks and International Letter Writing Week stamps are some of my favorite series!

k

Good stuff Kim - Scott numbers please? I'll see if I have any.

I recall somebody posted one or two of the National Parks once.

Here is a list (I stopped at 1962 because that's were my Japan mint collection stops, many issues afterwards, completeness for time period not claimed):

National Parks
223-226,280-293,303-311,315-323,450-453,460-463,501-504,542-545,561-564,569-572,581-582,585-586,592-593,
600-601,607-608,612-613,624-625,664-665,675-677,691,697-698,724,727,733,741-745,758-760,764-767...

Stamp Week
395,422,479,616,630,641,646,671,692,728,757...

International Letter Writing Week
656,679,704,735,769...

k

Ill see what I have. Give me a bit of time. Unfortunately I will have to scan from now on since I took down my camera setup already that I had arranged for shooting stamps. These ones you have already though, right? Maybe better to ask me for something you don't have so that you can see something new.

Yes, I have most of those in mint condition. I have many of the ones after that as well, but mostly used and not well organized. I have put most of my Asian collection on hold for nearly 2 decades. So don't worry about it. Thanks, though!

Interesting though in these Japanese paintings how the women are always looking off to the side. I have a couple more to post soon. At least one of them is the same. A kind of listless look in the subject's eyes as well.

Recently a style of finely detailed oil paintings from Vietnam has become very popular with modern pop culture. Scenes of women elegantly dressed in traditional Vietnamese silk clothing in traditional village settings and scenes performing everyday tasks.

Of course now the Chinese are copying the style too since it sells. They are showing less rural scenery around the women though. More with lanterns and so forth. Here is one from http://www.ming-gallery.com/traditi...intings.html

you guys havent seen beauty yet. oh for a midori :)

A couple of last Japanese stamps: