archive

So you decided to take a peek in my archive...
A wise choice stranger !! This is where the misccelaneous postcards are !

What can I say...some postcards remain a mistery to me...other cards are just plain and dull, are damaged etc.
That is why they are presented here. And I also have some questions for you...

Remember that old 'Kinks' song (60's UK band) "Celluloid Heroes" - you know they never die...they just fade away...
Most of these cards have been stashed away in old albums, cigar boxes & the like...

This is where those old postcards come alive again. So please enjoy !!

Dairen (Da Lian in Chinese) is a harbor city in south Manchuria (Dong Bei).
The Russians leased it from China and after the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-05.
'Dairen' went to the victorious Japanese and became the base of its pre WWII
rule over Manchuria.

The Japanese Imperial Army, date ???
If you know the date please send an e-mail !

The writing on the card (in French) says: "...Souvenir de la guerre Russo-Japonaise Batterie d'Artillerie
démoli..."
Does this need any translation...I don't think so !
This card was send from Vladivostok on July 30th, 1911
(Russo-Japanese War = 1904-1905)

Nakamura Utaemon "V" (?) - a famous Kabuki actor.
Utaemon was the fifth in a long line of 'onnagata' actors - actors who specialized
in playing female roles. Here he is depicted in his role of Katsuragi, a famous courtesan
in the play "Harusamegasa" written by Fukuchi Ochi around 1897

The bell in Shitennoji Temple near Osaka. One of the oldest Buddhist temples in Japan.

The return from Prince Hirohito from his visit to England
Third day, Ninth month, year ten Taisho.


The great Kanto Earthquake 1923	The great Kanto Earthquake 1923	Tokyo Station not long after its completion...	Looking up Imperial Palace from Babasaki Street, Tokyo

Ueno Koen (Park) in the 1920's (?)	Nagasaki, Shinbashi Station - late 1910's early 1920's	The 'Takarazuka Hotel' / date ?? published by the Asahi Brewery	Ginza Street from Nippon Gekijo Movie Theatre 1930's (?)

Ok, so it's a great picture of the Edogawa river, but what makes it special is the stamp.
This card was written on the 6th of September 1920 to someone in the Belgian Army.
What prompted me to put this on-line was the stamp of the 7th Olympiad held in Antwerp, Belgium
in 1920.

A Tale of two Department Stores

"...The big change, the domestication of the foreign, began in late Meiji, at about the time of the Russo-Japanese
War, and the advertising man and the retail merchant may have been responsible for it..."

Throughout most of the Meiji period the big shops specialized in dry goods. One would remove their footwear
and step in the sales room and ask for a specific item to be purchased.
There was no thing such as windowshopping, back then.

Enter, Mitsukoshi and Shirokiya at the end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th century.

- Mitsui or Mitsukoshi was established in Edo in the 17th century.
- Shirokiya which was also established around the same period, be it somewhat earlier.

"...Mitsukoshi was better at advertising than Shirokiya. In late Meiji standing face to face across the bridge
to where all roads led (Nihonbashi), the two sought to outdo each other with bold innovations.
Shortly after the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 - 1905, Mitsui added a second floor, with showcases.
These were innovations so startling that for a time they were resisted by customers.

- Mitsukoshi was ahead with the showcases.
- Shirokiya in 1886 became one of the first stores to sell Western clothes and
it had one of the first telephones in the city, kept out of sight so as not to disturb shoppers.
They also had the first shopgirls, up until then all the the clerks had been men.

Mitsukoshi (the name was registered in 1904) began selling hats, leather goods and sundries.
The final Mitsukoshi department store opened at 1908 after extensive roadworks.

Shirokiya's answer to this was a new building, four storeys and a tower in 1911.
It had game rooms and the first of the exhibition halls.

In 1914 the Mitsukoshi completed a grand expansion resulting in a modern building, it had elevators,
central heating a roof garden and an escalator.

The Shirokiya building may have been more interesting (I'm talking pre 1923 eartquake and
WWII here) Shirokiya eventually lost the competition simply because they didn't could quite
catch up with it's rival Mitsukoshi.

- quotes from Edward Seidensticker's book "Low City, High City" ISBN 0-394-50730-4 © 1983
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Publishers -

I have no clue about this photograph though, my opinion is that this is a Yoshiwara brothel, despite the
American flags. Ok, if I'm wrong tell me...
This postcard whispers "Yoshiwara" to me, early nineteenhundreds...

Prove me wrong and send me an e-mail !