Too Many Stamps????

Maybe Japan issues more stamps than any other country. That is fine for me for now, because I am still in the stage of simply collecting everything, no specialization yet.

But the sheer number of stamps can be overwhelming. Especially the 記念 or anniversary stamps – they really seem endless. And sometimes the events they commemorate seem a bit…trivial.

Here are two of my favorites. The 9th Annual Congress on Edible Mushrooms??? The Kagoshima Int’l Conference on Volcanoes is a bit more understandable. But still, you have to wonder who makes the decision: Hey, let’s make a stamp for the 9th Annual Congress on Edible Mushrooms???

This is not a complaint – I love living in a country so full of stamps. But it is hard keeping up with the endless releases of new stamps.

日本語 hints
overwhelming = 圧倒的, too much
commemorate = 記念する
trivial = small and unimportant, maybe ささいな or ありふれた??
edible = can eat it, 毒性がなくて、食べられる
complaint = 不満、愚痴

stamp art (2)

Here are a couple more pictures from the cut stamp art // kirie (切り絵) exhibition near my home. It is hard to see in the pictures from my camera, but the level of detail in the actual works is amazing.

Kirie can be made from any kind of paper – you cut strips of paper and arrange them in colorful patterns. When looked at from afar, they are quite beautiful. To me, they become even more beautiful when studied up-close. Then you can see how strips of individual stamps were placed together to make larger sections of color.


But I don’t think that kirie made from used postage stamps are very common. I hope to try it out with my daughter soon – they have a monthly session at the Tokyo Stamp Museum.

日本語 hints:

- exhibition = 展覧会、展示会
- from afar = from far away, from a distance
- up-close = well…up close. “close up” is frequently used (and mis-used!) in katakana English, but not “up-close”

Stamp Art

A couple months ago, I was wandering around the vendors' stalls at the Tokyo Stamp Museum when I noticed someone...it took me a while to place the face, then it hit me -- the security guard at a local community center.

I often go to martial arts practice at the community center and never got a word out of any of the security guards there. I suppose foreigners walking around with swords are not easy targets for conversation.

I must have passed by his post hundreds of times over the years, and not a word passed between us. And here he was, at the stamp museum. After a pause, I ventured a few words. Turns out he is a long-term stamp collector.

Since that time, we have exchanged words each time I visit the community center.

A couple weeks back, he tipped me off about an exhibition in the lobby: works of art made by cutting and arranging postage stamps (切り絵). I should post again later with more details, the name of the artist, and so on.

日本語hints
security guard = 警備員
martial arts = 武道、武術
tip someone off = tell them, give them information

Another stamp museum

Well sort of. I took my daughter to the “stamp show” at the Communications Museum near Tokyo Station. It was not what I expected, but the day turned out fairly well.

I had images of many dealers offering a wide variety of stamps and collecting equipment. Instead, there were a very small number of dealers with fairly limited inventory. But my daughter and I both dug deeply in the “10 stamps for 100 yen” basket and emerged with smiles.

These are the unwanted cast-offs from the dealer. Nothing valuable, to be sure, but much of interest to both my daughter and I. She stuck with her interests – large colorful stamps with animals and wildlife. Those, and old Soviet space glory stamps.

As for me, I scooped up a couple dozen oldies from countries which are under-represented in my collection, many countries from South America and Africa.

While at the museum we poked around all three floors but mostly we stuck with stamp stuff. For me, one of the most interesting exhibits was a collection of regional toys, specific to various prefectures in Japan, which have been featured on the annual New Years stamps (see photos).

We’ll probably go again next year, but with a better idea of what to expect, and more small change for the stamp basket.

New Year Stamps

I spent much of my New Year’s holiday working on stamps – soaking thousands of stamps off envelopes, and drying them, and flattening them. I haven’t yet put them into my album as I am trying to reorganize and I don’t want to move them all again in the future.

In the beginning, I just put them in an album in ascending order from 1 yen to 1000 yen. But now, having bought a catalog of all Japanese stamps ever issued, I see that I am in way over my head. I will likely follow its system: grouping by themes such as furusato, commemoratives, and so on. Then, it arranges chronologically within each theme. Fine enough, but now I have to move and shuffle about three billion stamps.

It was so simple when I was young. Maybe 30 years back, I had a giant Harris album with little Xeroxed pictures of every stamp in the world (or so it seemed). Find the country, find the picture, put a hinge on the stamp and stick it on the page. So neat and orderly!

So far I have four albums with no end in sight (and all those thousands I bought just before the new year…). I suppose that is part of the joy of it all – imposing order upon chaos. Strange connection, but it seems that is what my latest favorite TV show, Deadwood, was all about – the director was interested in how chaos is transformed into civilization. (Deadwood was one of the last Wild West towns in the US and had a brief period of near-anarchy before it was formally brought into the US.

Well, heavy themes aside, you can find in the picture my themes over the New Year holiday: postage stamp work (drying on the plates), good beer, and daidai citrus fruit to mix with shochu alcohol. Hmmm, it is getting late at night and cold in my room. Maybe it is time to heat some water and shochu….

日本語 hints:
ascending order – moving up from smaller to bigger = 昇順

in way over my head – the project is much too difficult (お手上げ！)

chronologically – in order by year = 時系列順

Xerox -- the name of a photocopier company. The word is now used as noun AND verb in English (similar to new internet-related verbs like ぐぐる or うぃきる?)

hinge – in this context, a small item which is used to stick the stamp into an album without damaging the stamp

imposing order upon chaos – tough one. “impose” is something like 果たす or 押し付ける. Chaos = 無秩序 or 混乱状態. Order = something like 秩序. So this phrase means to change chaos into an orderly situation.

anarchy – 無政府

焼酎 – This is best left as “shochu” in English, maybe together with “Japanese distilled spirits” to stress that the alcohol content is higher than the more-commonly known お酒 or sake. Using both E and J together is often best for unique Japanese foods and drinks.

pay to work

Most people get paid for the work they do. Some people don’t. In my case, I am paying to do work.

Not all the time, but certainly so in the case of stamps.

Until very recently, I took pride in never paying for stamps, not being concerned with their monetary value. I collect used stamps and just enjoy the collecting. I am not searching for particularly valuable or collectible stamps.

So I have been quite satisfied with the flow of used stamps I get from here and there (though I would like to start trading with other amateur collectors!). But the other day, when visiting the Stamp Museum, I changed tactics – I found two bags full of used Japanese stamps at one of the private vendors’ stalls. The price was low so I snapped them up and everything was great…

…until I realized how much work I was in store for. The reason they were so cheap was that (a) none were rare (b) all were still attached to the corners of envelopes, meaning I had hours and hours of work ahead of me.

I have been soaking, peeling, drying, and flattening stamps for weeks now and have finally finished all the stamps – in the smaller of the two bags!

But I have no complaints – this work is fun for me and I am forging ahead with my collection of Japanese stamps. Another one of the private dealers had some bags of Canadian stamps – also common and still attached to the corners of envelopes. I have had my eye on them and will probably pick them up next time.

Thankfully the bags are much smaller…

日本語 hints:
take pride in = be proud of something I do

vendor = someone who sells things (by the way, do you know what 自動販売機 is in English? vending machine

snap something up = buy it quickly, buy it on the spot

how much work I was in store for = how much work was waiting for me

to forge ahead = to make great or rapid progress

to have your eye on something = to be watching it (or, in this case, to be waiting to buy it)

Yokohama Stamps

Yokohama stamps

Just a selection from the 150th stamps for the opening of Yokohama, in celebration of several days’ work in Yokohama. It was nice to get out of the Tokyo grind. I have few chances to go, but I always enjoy my visits to Yokohama. The only disappointing thing on the most recent job was not being able eat lunch in Chinatown!

Below is some relevant text from the infomapjapan.com website:

In 1859, Yokohama opened its port to Commodore Perry and his "Black Ships", ending Japan's national isolation policy and making the city the base for foreign trade in Japan. This year marks the 150th anniversary of this event and to commemorate this momentous occasion, the city of Yokohama is sponsoring "EXPO Y150". This special exposition will focus on the history and attractions of the city and will be based on Yokohama's three symbols - the sea, city and nature.

日本語hints:
the grind = the usual pattern. To “get out of the grind” is to break the pattern, to do something (and therefore interesting)

relevant = related, connected 関係がある
isolation policy = 鎖国
momemtous = very important, historic

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)