Japan: Stamps

Philatarium

Can we explain why Mount Fuji is transliterated as Mount Huzi  in  some Tourist catalogues?

 

Yes.   peter has answered, but perhaps I could provide another chart.

If you'll refer to this Wikipedia article about hiragana, look at the first chart, titled basic hiragana characters:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiragana

That chart works kind of like an Excel spreadsheet, with vowels in columns and consonants in row.  

If you look down the rows at the consonants, you'll find the row for "h".  The intersection of that row with the columns are the 5 syllables that start with the "h" sound and end with the vowel:  ha  hi  hu  he  ho.   

And you can see it's the same model for other consonants, such as:  ka  ki  ku  ke  ko
or:  ma  mi  mu  me  mo

Now, here's the trick:  the pronunciation of 'hu' is kind of an exception:  it can be pronounced 'hu' or 'fu', and really is kind of pronounced like it's halfway in between those 2 sounds.   

Conveniently, Wikipedia again has a short write-up and addresses the hu/fu situation in the first paragraph:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu_(kana)  

Here are a couple of other short links that discuss the hu/fu amalgam and perhaps round out the understanding a little bit:

jref.com/threads/the-japanese-fu-sound.5586/

soranews24.com/2015/01/04/the-science-behind-why-we-cant-pronounce-the-japanese-fu/

I'm never sure how much detail is too much or not enough.  My fingers are crossed that this is somewhat helpful.

Philatarium
If, just one person / collector, finds the information (Whilst it is available) helpful, then you have done your job.

The joy I get, from sourcing philatelic information, from monographs written some as early as 1890 is inestimable.
I have re-visited forum posts from as early as 2000 when I was asking how to read Japanese dates.
This is one blessing of the internet.

Imagine the joy, when the Rosetta stone was cracked... we could read heiroglyphics!

Imagine the sadness when the Library of Alexandria was burnt, and what we lost.

managed to put all the new received Japan stamps into one Stock sheet
hope I can get more to move them into an album

Emperor Taisho   (Emperor Yoshihito)
123rd Emperor of Japan
Enthronement

Sc#150  and #151   The Enthronement Room,  Kyoto.  Perf 12 x 12½
4 sen and 10 sen.
November 10th 1915

Anglicised Postmarks YOKOHAMA   and OSAKA   (For overseas mail / usage ?)

@ponsol1

Hi Ponsol1
Any postage stamp, off cover and cancelled, dictates that it has been used (handled)
Sometimes very poorly by new collectors.
Ergo, this is possibly a "colour changeling"   that is,  faded by poor soaking, or light damage  (the pigment fades)

A very common occurrence and can be confused with "ink shades"

Thanks for the replies!

Imperial Japanese Stamps - Still need to identify (any help will be greatly appreciated).

Bottom Row
Japan Revenue Stamps
General Tax revenues
1898

From a set of 13

5 rin  (4th in the set)
1 sen Blue  (5th in the set)


Top row, Scott 85  and 86   (Anglicised Pmks, suggest international postal use)

gmstamps , the Silver Wedding pair of stamps have two different varieties of Roman letter postmarks which are identified in the ISJP Monograph #7 as Double Circle Postmarks with Meiji Year. This postmark was in use during the early 1890s in Yokohama as well as other cities like Kobe, Tokio and Nagasaki. On the 5 sen on the left, below, the lettering is without serifs whereas the 2 sen on the right is with serifs and in a smaller typeface.

Very cool, darkormex ! There are also reissues of some values with a security feature added. The 94y, 100y, 120y, and 140y are the values that I know exist issued with and without the security features. I’m missing the 100y reprint - such a common stamp! Scott numbers for the reprints are 4486-89, reissued in 2021.

They are difficult to see in a picture, but if you examine the upper right corner of the stamp there will be a shimmery Japan Post symbol and a flower in the lower left corner. Let me try to get a pictured side by side example. I had to angle the camera to get these to show up.

philatelia, you might be interested to know that Sakura also has given new provisional catalog numbers to the 1y, 5y, 20y, 30y and 50y which were re-printed in 2017 and 2018 by a different method, gravure, but are difficult to distinguish from the 2014 issues.

Here is a page done with all that I have from the 2014 issues. There are obvious holes and I think I have the 1000y high value somewhere (not sure if I am confusing this with an earlier issue) which I will mount later. I also have a separate page for specials like SON cancels, cancel varieties and premium items like the 500y below with printer's imprint and a roller cancel with city name of Izumisano (near Osaka) and date of September 30, 2023.

may1964

JAPANESE POSTAL SEAL  (Identified by the punctures)
Use: for sealing the envelope for value declared mail for sending cash
Issued 1910
retail Value was 1 sen (=1/100 yen) per 3 stamps

1st line is "ka-Kaku-Hyou-Ki" = value declared

Source and Author : "Unechan"





Unechan 2018