Japanese oldies

Here is a selection of older Japanese stamps I received recently. Quite a few of them are attractive, but two in particular make a nice pair.

Start with the red stamp which is the third stamp in the second row / middle row. It shows an airplane (a bomber, I first imagined) flying over a pagoda – perhaps symbolic of new technology emerging from traditional culture?

Then look at the first stamp in the third row / bottom row. It is another airplane (another bomber?), but this one is passing in front of a giant Buddha statue – perhaps capturing the post-War mood in Japan?

Another interesting point for me was the denomination – several of the stamps were marked in 銭 or sen, much older in use (and smaller in value) than the currently-used 円 or ￥ , yen. I don’t see the Japanese kanji character for 銭 very often these days. I used to see it every night when I went to the 銭湯 or public bath, but those are closing down all over Japan.

Please note that I used the phrase “Japanese kanji character” in this case. Almost all Japanese people will call these “Chinese characters” because the Japanese system of writing was imported from China. In a Japanese cultural context, that makes sense.

But in an English-speaking context, that is very confusing. The characters used for writing in China – 汉字 or hanzi in Chinese – are “Chinese characters” to an English speaker. Sometimes they are written the same as Japanese characters, sometimes not. There are even more differences now than in the past due to the simplification of characters on the mainland.

The Japanese character 銭 is now written as 钱 on the mainland, and it is pronounced “qian” with a rising tone. It is seen and heard commonly in the very useful Chinese phrase “多少钱?”. This is read “duo shao qian” and is used for asking how much something costs.

日本語 hints
- row = 列、横列、行列 (horizontal, or across)
- column = 列、縦列 (vertical, or up and down)
- bomber = an airplane which carries and drops bombs (爆撃機)
- pagoda = 塔 The word “pagoda” is actually a loan word from Portugeuse into English.
- symbolic = 象徴
- simplification = making things easier or simpler; 簡単化 By the way, “simplified characters” can be called 簡体字\
- mainland (China) = 大陸 , used to refer to China separate from Taiwan (Taiwan does not use simplified characters)