Today in Postal History


Address Side  

Japan to United States
November 17, 1905

This picture postcard was franked with a pair of 2s light green from 1899 (Scott 96).
The date is confirmed by the English version of the Japanese CDS.

The cover was received in Sayre, Pennsylvania, on December 11.
Sayre is nearly on the border of Pennsylvania and New York
about 100 km northwest of Wilkes-Barre.

I cannot identify the view however it looks like one of the many Japanese shrines.
Futagoji Temple is one of the noted ones found in Akimachi.

What is most interesting about this item is its purpose.
The text on the illustration side says,

"I heard your name.
If you will let me have your
kind letter, I would answer
you every time.
        I sent two cards.
(s)G. Nishigawa

Akimachi ToSA Japan."
This message is typical for someone who is trying to establish a penpal relationship.
ToSA (Tosa) was the prefecture for Akimachi, a town which has a current postal code.
Tosa was absorbed in the Kochi prefecture during a past reorganization.

Machi indicates town and is sometimes added as a suffix, so the town was Aki.
Aki is about 35 km east of Kochi on the south coast of the island of Shikoku.
Shikoku is the island off the southwestern part of Honshu, the principal island of Japan.
There is an interactive map of the area here.
Just click on Kochi.*

Did you ever try to write to a penpal?  Most of us did.

*Thanks to David Frick for correcting my spelling of Nishigawa which he translates as "west river."
Thanks, too, to David for pursuing the location of Aki.
It makes an interesting addition to the story.

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