I have a couple of dozen of these little books. They're made of leatherette with pages made of that almost parchment-like semi-transparent paper.
The pages are postcard size. The labels are hand-lettered. The inside back cover has what I'm taking to be a date, example, 28.2.11, with a number at the bottom and a couple more Chinese characters.
Are these for postcards? Do they have any value or should I donate them to the thrift shop where I volunteer.
Oops! Forgot to put in the images... Sun's been over the yardarm too long for me to be thinking.
Lucy
[ edited by OhMsLucy on Mar 11, 2004 05:44 PM ]
posted on March 11, 2004 06:27:52 PM new
i think these are japanese books or covers for something-the characters are chinese or what they call kansi (hans characters),one is book 1 and the other is book 7,it has to do with post office mail for railroad and for the capital which i assume is toyko.
what is inside??
can you scan the inside pages??
-sig file -------the lobster in the boiling pot of water who tries to prevent the others from climbing out.
posted on March 11, 2004 07:08:55 PM new
i think they are used to keep track of some kind of correspondence ,i am quite sure this is japanese,not chinese.if you know a japanese national,he will tell you what they are for.
-sig file -------the lobster in the boiling pot of water who tries to prevent the others from climbing out.
posted on March 12, 2004 05:49:49 AM new
why do you call the cover leatherette??it looks like cloth binding and paper??
yahoo auction is big in japan,if you can get hold of some of the sellers there,i bet they can tell you what they are for.
-sig file -------the lobster in the boiling pot of water who tries to prevent the others from climbing out.
posted on March 12, 2004 04:49:08 PM new
lucy-if you can cut and paste the writing go to this website and it will translate the writing into English for you.
Why do I call them leatherette? 'Cuz that's what they look like to me! LOL!
Thanks, Classic, I'll check it out.
From what Stop said, my suspicion is these could have been for storing something mailed to or for a railroad in Tokyo. No doubt useless from that perspective (they are, after all, empty...) but they would be pretty neat for keeping postcards.
posted on March 12, 2004 06:27:59 PM new
hmm. how come u're so sure they're japanese not chinese?
because from what I read.. the number 1 book characters are about a city, but the name isn't tokyo.. or at least what I read. it does have something to do with government/office/city
second book, or rather book number 7, middle characters says "railroad mail letters/documents"
the far right characters are the same on both books, and can be translated into different meaning, depending on what they use these for..
from what I gather, its: "mail/correspondence dates with stamp(stamp in the sense of approval stamp, not mail stamp, I think)
anyways I'm not sure on the japanese chinese thing. i suppose it may be japanese since I read chinese, and when I read this.. it seems rather akward to read. but usually japanese would have a mix of japanese characters along with chinese. but then these are very old..
posting more pics of the other books labels would help in identifying what the office uses these for.
my guess is to keep letters and documents that has to deal with each subject.. railroad, (blank city) office, etc.
posted on March 12, 2004 07:11:53 PM new
capyoda,
true,they are all chinese characters,but a lot of japanese characters are kansi characters(hans characters) but they use these characters different than the chinese.
i was thinking just now,since the legend of china said the first emperor of china commissioned this dude to seek out the immortality drug from some legendary shangra la island ,he sailed off with 3000 virgin boys and girls and ran amok on an island in a shipwreck.they settled on the island which is japan and you figure these kids just throw the chinese characters backward and forward and make up their own writings??
the way they refer to their capital is edo thru centuries and now called tokyo,this is how they refer to their capital,this is not the term chinese refer their capital beijing.
these albums are not for personal collecting,it is meant for business.one year going thru city of toyko,i saw a place with some paper the size of postcards in a store ,it is odd,as this is all they have on display,they are issued by some govt agencies for tax collecting and they are stored nicely in single pockets,they dont have folders.
but why are they in this country and she said she has many??
i will see if i can get my japanese suppliers to tell me what they are??
-sig file -------the lobster in the boiling pot of water who tries to prevent the others from climbing out.
Here are some pictures of some of the books. This set of 9 is numbered from 251 to 259 at the bottom of the back cover. The other group of 13 have a different series of numbers - starts with 2510. Let me know if pics of the second group would be helpful.
I do very much appreciate your help - your knowledge is astounding!
posted on March 13, 2004 01:08:15 AM new
stop, yeah I know about those. and I do know they use them differently, hence I mentioned that when I read this, it sounds rather akward. so it may be japanese, I'm just not sure thats all.
as for edo, I'm just not sure if the first pic posted said that though. I do know that tokyo was formerly edo.
speaking of tokyo, I believe thats what the newer posted pic (1st one) with the book in the middle with the red label has tokyo written on it.
as for the rest of the labels in the first pic, I can't translate the first book label, the 2nd blue label is for a county/region, as is the third label (the other red label). the last label is another railroad one...
2nd pic: first three are railroads again..
3rd label translated literally is Pacific Way, its a city in japan I can't remember the actual name though. Gonna have to look it up.
I guess you're right about it being japanese, since in the last new pic posted, there's a name of a person in that red label, and its in 4 characters.. chinese names are 3 characters only, I think. heh. plus having Japanese cities on the labels are a big give away. heh.
the interesting thing is, the upper left hand corner of the book in the last pic, the circled character is "Secret" (for top secret), if I'm not mistaken.
hmmm..
but yeah these are definitely not for personal use.
they're used to store mail and documents.. thats my guess anyway.
the last book posted is a mystery to me. heh. the characters on the right are too faded for me to read.
anyway I've only lived in Taiwan for 5 years and my chinese level is like.. 2nd grade elementary.. it has been years since, and I wish I can translate these better for you, and give you a more definite answer on what they are. sorry about that.
posted on March 13, 2004 06:07:29 AM new
okay,i asked 3 of my japanese supplers last nite and one has responded-
he said-
the title is railway post ,kyoto prefecture .stamp to print time and day.
ns
can you use the curving metal techniq and make new item?
hiroshi yotsui
@lΓδ@lΓδG
/////////////////////////////////////////////
now the question-can i use the curving metal techniq---- may not relate to the question,he may be asking me to buy some new stuff from him.
but anyway,he said it is japanese and he is a solid japanese citizen.
sorry for the capital being toyko,kyoto is the old capital of japan.perfecture in japan is like a state in usa or a province in china.
-sig file -------the lobster in the boiling pot of water who tries to prevent the others from climbing out.
posted on March 13, 2004 06:14:17 AM new
ohmlucy,
the second set of photos you show confirm the first set,more railroad and more japanese city/prefectures-such as toyko,hokaido which is in northern japan,and the other are also names of japanese perfectures.
stay tuned,i am going to find out more.
-sig file -------the lobster in the boiling pot of water who tries to prevent the others from climbing out.
posted on March 13, 2004 01:41:43 PM new
okay,i showed these pics to an american who spent 30 years in japan working for japanese companies,he said these are inventory cards by prefecture(province),japanese are well organised people.
he said,yes,it is possible to have a few hundred of them.
-sig file -------the lobster in the boiling pot of water who tries to prevent the others from climbing out.
posted on March 13, 2004 06:06:14 PM new
I know zero-zilch about any oriental languages and stand in awe of the posters who are translating this. I have so little natural language skill that I was a disaster at college French. I am chiming in on Ms Lucy's comment about using them for post cards. They might be a prefect size but before I put any rare or valuable postcards in them I would get a pen to test for acid content. I had hundreds of photographs in glassine envelopes and after I got an acid testing pen from Light Impressions I discovered they were full of acid and ditched every one of them in favor of acid free plastic sleeves.
-----o----o----o----o----o----o----o----o
The illiterate of the future will be the person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as of the pen.
Maholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion, 1947
posted on March 13, 2004 06:23:50 PM new
this is a good point,if they are using them to track inventory,they may not be good for keeping photos .
-sig file -------the lobster in the boiling pot of water who tries to prevent the others from climbing out.
My thanks to everyone who offered their expertise! I am continually amazed at the knowledge willingly shared on this board.
Photo has a good point about the sleeves perhaps being harmful to old photos or postcards. I think these neat little books need to make their way to the thrift shop. I'd feel very bad if someone bought them and then found out they weren't safe to use.
posted on March 15, 2004 09:02:15 AM new
Ohmslucy,
more japanese chimed in,they think those albums are old,so they could be worth something to collectors on ebay.
-sig file -------the lobster in the boiling pot of water who tries to prevent the others from climbing out.
