Japanese Ephemera
From the CARGO Archives: A collection of stamps, stickers and ephemera related to the Japanese Post.
As we are able to take the time to comb through our collection, we continually come across amazing finds and fall in love all over again. It is always exciting to share what we (re)discover.
On a trip to Japan nearly a decade ago, Patty and Bridgid came across a large collection of paper material from a vintage and antiques dealer in Nagoya 名古屋市 that they had frequented before. In fact, this vendor is the very same who brought us the beloved Cargo elephant-kiddie-ride, Sato-chan サトちゃん, so they knew it must be something excellent!
It turns out, that this massive collection of paper materials is a decades long inventory of First Day Issue Envelopes from the Japanese post collected by an avid philatelic enthusiast. A First Day Issue Envelope is something stamp collectors treasure, as it commemorates the first date and time a specific stamp was released. And in Japan, this merits not only a special envelope designed to relate with the stamp, but also a commemorative cancel designed to go along with the stamp. The cancel is the ink stamp that signifies a postage stamp has been used, voiding it from reuse.
One of the most amazing and interesting pieces in the collection is an envelope celebrating the first flight from Lost Angeles to Tokyo by Japan Airlines in 1959. This is a crossover piece of memorabilia, as not only is it related to stamp collection, with a great 1946 25¢ United States Air Mail stamp of a plane flying over the San Francisco Bay Bridge, but it is also related to airline history through Japan Airlines as well as Disney history. The envelope includes recognizable imagery from the Disney pantheon, including Dumbo and Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. It is an indicator of the burgeoning role Disneyland was playing within worldwide tourism at the time, having only opened just four years earlier.
Overall, this collection of envelopes and stamps plays into the rich visual history from within Japan, and the graphics are just gorgeous. The vibrant colors and various printing styles, as well as the paper itself hold so much creative inspiration. Working with local vendors, Atlas Stamp and No-Limits Stickers, we have created an ever-growing collection of rubber stamps and stickers using the amazing imagery from these envelopes!
The envelopes themselves make great mini works of art as there is broad subject matter as well as vibrant colors, what an excellent gift! Or, we have seen people use the imagery in their own artwork, drawing on the overflowing inspiration through illustration, collage or other mixed mediums.
Keep an eye out as we continue to dig further into the collection and pull out more images for our always revolving and growing collection of stamps and stickers!
* Make an appointment to visit us in store and see their beauty in person. We have a much larger assortment of envelopes as well as many other Japanese paper ephemera: katagami, photography, boro paper and antique books and ledgers.
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