Meiji-era Japan Tourist Postcards — Fuji + Yōmei-mon, c1900-1910
$ 10.56
Description
Meiji-era Japan Tourist Postcards — Fuji + Yōmei-mon, c1900-1910. A pair of Meiji-era Japanese tourist postcards, c1900-1910, both hand-tinted collotypes from a Yokohama publisher (name unknown, in the Tonboya / K. Kimbei studio tradition) — Mount Fuji viewed from Lake Hakone, and the Yōmei-mon gate at Nikkō (the most ornately decorated structure in the Tōshōgū shrine complex). Two canonical Meiji tourist subjects, both with multilingual UPU postcard backs in the format used 1900-1914 for Western international tourist correspondence. Two anchor Meiji subjects: Fuji-from-Hakone is the classic Western-facing Meiji tourist image — the symmetry of the cone reflected in the lake, the framing through pine. The Yōmei-mon at Nikkō is the other end of the Meiji tourist itinerary: the elaborate gold-leaf-and-polychrome 17th-century shrine gate, the densest decorative-carving program in Japan. Collotype hand-tinting: Both are collotype prints (a photographic-process / planographic technique that yielded fine continuous tone on small-run runs) with the period hand-applied watercolor wash characteristic of Yokohama studio output — green / blue / red tints applied over the collotype base by Japanese colorists for the Western tourist export market. UPU postcard backs: Both backs show the multilingual Universal Postal Union format ("Carte Postale / Postkarte / Post Card / Cartolina Postale") used on international postcards 1900-1914, consistent with the c1900-1910 dating. One carries a US 1¢ rate format (held 1898-1917) for the American tourist correspondent market. Condition: Both postcards in very-good collector condition. Image-side hand-tinting bright and unfaded; addresses-and-back clean; no creases, no significant edge wear, no stamp residue. Period postcard card stock has slight age-toning consistent with c1900-1910 export-grade tourist postcards. A small-but-coherent matched pair for Meiji-era Japanese tourist-postcard collectors (a niche but active cohort within early-postcard collecting) and for Yokohama-studio collotype specialists. Bundled because per-piece labor exceeds margin at $9 each individually. Free shipping. Included: Included: Mount Fuji from Lake Hakone, hand-tinted collotype postcard (Yokohama publisher, c1900-1910, multilingual UPU back); Yōmei-mon gate at Nikkō, hand-tinted collotype postcard (Yokohama publisher, c1900-1910, US 1¢ rate UPU back).
