This page is designed to bring together information about Japanese publishers of undivided backs.
There are four periods of Japanese cards up to the end of WWII:
Period I. Undivided back: October 1900 to 27 March 1907
Period II. 1/3 divided back: 28 March 1907 to March 1918
Period III. 1/2 divided back: 郵便はかき: March 1918 to February 1933
Period IV. 1/2 divided back: 郵便はがき: February 1933 to August 1945
Periods I to III are readily distinguishable from the development of the address side from undivided to 1/3 for the message to 1/2 for the message. The difference between periods III and IV lies in the wording on the address side.
Source: East Asia Image Collection Blog How to Ascertain the Date (or Time Period) of Prewar Japanese Picture Postcards
There have been more than 230 era names of the official calendar of Japan; Reiwa (Japanese: 令和) is the current era. These two are probably the ones we need to be going on with:
Meiji 明治 1868 to 1912 CE
44 years, 186 days
Taishō 大正 1912 to 1926 CE
14 years, 147 days
To convert a Japanese year to a Gregorian calendar (CE) year, find the first year of the Japanese era name (also called nengō). When found, add the number of the Japanese year, then subtract 1.
Source: wikipedia Japanese Era Name
Japanese names are composed of surname and given name. Surnames always appear before given names when written in Japanese. Until 2020, it was the official policy of the Government of Japan to place given names first and surnames second when Romanising Japanese names which is the course I try to follow though today, the policy has been changed to place surnames first even when names are Romanised. I am beginning to put surnames entirely in capitals.
Kanji 漢字 are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese. A logogram is a sign or character representing a word or phrase. There are nearly 3,000 kanji used in Japanese names and in common communication. The modern Japanese writing system uses a combination of kanji and kana characters which, unlike kanji, correspond to individual syllables.
When written in Japanese, the majority of surnames are two Kanji characters long, such as Nakamura (中村), or Suzuki (鈴木). However, there are exceptions that are either one or three characters long which is not uncommon.
Some Kanji characters tend to be used more often in surnames of one gender than another. For example, ‘Ko’ (子 child), ‘Haru’ (春 spring), and ‘Mi’ (美 beauty) are more commonly found in female names; ‘Ro’ (郎 son), and ‘Ki’ (木 tree) are more commonly found in male names.
Source: Understanding Japanese Naming Conventions to Enhance Investigations
Cities are divided into districts 丁目 (chome); Then, each block in the district is numbered 番地, pronounced “banchi.” Finally, each building in the block is numbered 号, pronounced “go.”
Often, to simplify the address in writing, the suffixes (丁目, 番地, and 号) are omitted and the numbers are written in order with a hyphen in between each. For example:
東京都港区麻布台1丁目9番地12号（1 chome, 9 banchi, 12 go）is often written like: 東京都港区麻布台1-9-12
Source: Plaza Homes Japanese Addresses: How to Read, Write, Say & Understand Them
In the second year of the Meiji Era (1869, A.D.) the telegraph service was first inaugurated between Tokyo and Yokohama, while the railway service was first opened between the two cities in 1872. The postal service was inaugurated in 1871 and postcards issued in 1873.
In October of the fourth year of the Meiji Era (1871, A.D.) the Emperor sent Tomorai Iwakura, First Assistant Premier, to Europe and America as an Envoy, for the purpose of studying the conditions in those countries and revising the treaties signed with the various powers during the Ansei Era (1854 to 1860). The Envoy was courteously received by the Governments and people of the countries he visited, but the time was premature for Japan to revise the treaties. Therefore, the Envoy simply studied the organisation of Governments and conditions in the western countries and returned home in September 1873. The result was the further introduction of western civilisation and military science, education, taxes and laws were remoulded on western lines.
Source: Japan in the Taisho era. In commemoration of the Enthronement Iwata Nishizawa 1917 Internet Archive
Elsewhere in this directory are entries about:
- Ichida Offset Insatsu Goshi Kaisha, Kobe, Japan
- Heiwadô KAMIGATAYA, Kanda, Tokyo
- Naniwaya & Company, Kanda, Tokyo
- Y. TORII, Shibaku, Tokyo;
- Sanshichiro YAMAMOTO, a Japanese photographer who worked in China;
- Kiyoshi YOSHIMURA, Yokohama
- Russo-Japanese War 1904-05
During the colonial period of twentieth-century Korea, it was common to see the names of Japanese publishers like Wakijaka Shoten, Manazuru & Co., or Hindoe Shoko printed on Korean pictorial postcards though they were not made in Korea.
Source: Pictorial Postcards of a Colonial City: The “dreamwork” of Japanese Imperialism Won Gi Jung
Some publishers are difficult to identify:
CM
- CM monogram in stamp box
CM, postcard publisher, Japan. Japanese undivided-backs date from before 1907.
Japanese 獨 doku 
The text under the picture translates as “The first thing I did was to find out” The text down the left side of the reverse translates as “The first thing I noticed was that”. These are both phrases related to making a discovery. It might be that these indicate a publisher with a name approximating to “discovery” but AI says there isn’t a well-known Japanese postcard publisher with the name “Discovery,”
It might be that the concept of discovery in the context of Japanese-themed postcards refers to the rediscovery of Japan by the West, and the visual representations of life in Japan on postcards.
Perhaps there is a better clue to the publisher in the stamp box which features the Kanji character “獨” (doku), meaning “independent” or “single,” surrounded by a stylised wreath of pine branches.
This Card: The Nara period of the history of Japan covers the years from 710 to 794 when Empress Genmei had established the capital at Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara).
According to Shinto belief, deity Takemikazuchi-no-mikoto came to Mt. Mikasa, which is considered a holy mountain, to dwell on its summit for the prosperity of the nation and happiness of the people. Kasuga-taisha (春日大社) is a Shinto shrine, the shrine of the Fujiwara family, established in 768 CE at the foot of the mountain and rebuilt several times over the centuries. The path to the Kasuga Shrine passes through a deer park. In the park, deer are able to roam freely and are believed to be sacred messengers of the Shinto gods that inhabit the shrine and surrounding mountainous terrain.
Sources: Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology Library; Kasugataisha Shrine; wikipedia Nara Period
undivided-back postcards 