Title
1925 Japan Taisho Silver Wedding Empress Teimei Court Ladies Kashikodokoro Postcard
Front Description
A monochrome halftone reproduction of a Japanese commemorative illustration, printed in grey and black tones on cream card stock, horizontal format, with a narrow white margin at the foot carrying a single line of letterpress caption.
The scene depicts three court ladies within the precincts of the Kashikodokoro, the imperial palace sanctuary, during the silver wedding observances.
At the centre stands the principal figure, shown full-length and turned slightly toward the viewer. She wears the formal court dress of the Japanese imperial household in the ancient style: a heavy dark outer robe with wide trailing sleeves, patterned with large circular crest roundels of stylised floral or knot form scattered across the ground, worn over layered pale under-robes whose collars and hem edges show in bands of white. A long pale train sweeps out behind her onto the floor. Her hair is dressed in the classical suberakashi manner — drawn back smoothly and falling in a long dark fall down her back — ornamented with a pale hair-piece at the crown. Her face is drawn with the refined economy of court portraiture: a pale oval, fine brows, small features and a composed downcast expression.
To the right stand two attendant court ladies, both in similar layered court robes of lighter tone, the nearer with a robe of dense allover foliate or arabesque pattern, the further in plainer dark garments. Both incline their heads respectfully, hands held before them, and both wear the same long-fall court coiffure.
The setting is the shrine precinct in unpainted timber: a low railed veranda or balustrade of plain squared members runs across the foreground, with a further railing behind and a stepped platform edge below. Behind the figures rise tall panels of fine lattice screening, plain rendered wall surfaces, and vertical timber posts and door frames, with a hanging blind or curtain suggested to the left.
At the upper right, set within a rectangular panel, is a brush-written inscription in bold black calligraphy reading: 陛下 銀婚式 賢所 (Heika ginkonshiki, Kashikodokoro — “His Majesty’s Silver Wedding ceremony, the Kashikodokoro”).
Printed across the lower white margin, running right-to-left in a single line of black type, is the full commemorative caption.
The card shows overall cream toning, light foxing and scattered small brown specks concentrated at the edges and corners, mild surface soiling, and light wear and softening to the corners and edges.
Back Description
Divided-back Japanese postcard reverse, all printing in blue ink on white stock.
Right edge, printed vertically: 郵便はかき (Yūbin hagaki — “Post Card”). Note: the final character appears as か without dakuten, an older orthographic form of はがき.
Upper right, within a rounded rectangular frame, the publisher’s trademark: a pictorial device of a perched bird with wings folded, flanked by the romanised imprint KŌBUNDO and NAKAMURA set vertically on either side.
A vertical double dividing rule runs down the card, separating the left-hand message area from the right-hand address panel.
Left of the dividing rule, printed vertically in kana: とこくかゝみの所宛は欄の上 — an instruction to the sender indicating that the addressee’s details are to be entered in the ruled columns above.
Right-hand address panel: four dotted horizontal ruled address lines, with vertical guide captions in small type indicating the required elements of a Japanese address, reading from right to left: 市廳府縣名 (city hall / prefecture name), 郡區町村字丁目番地 (district, ward, town, village, block and lot number), 宛名 (addressee’s name), and （配達局名） (delivery post office name).
Along the very bottom edge, a faint show-through impression of the front caption is visible in reverse, reading in part: 大正十四年五月十日 今上陛下銀婚御式之圖.
No message, address, stamp or postmark is present — the card is unused and postally unwritten. The paper shows light cream toning, scattered pale orange-brown foxing spots along the edges and corners, and light wear to the corners.
Estimated Era
Circa 1925 (Taishō 14).
The dating rests on the caption printed along the lower margin of the front, which reads, right-to-left: 大正十四年五月十日 今上陛下銀婚御式之圖 (Taishō jūyo-nen go-gatsu tōka, Kinjō Heika ginkon gyoshiki no zu — “Illustration of His Present Majesty’s Silver Wedding ceremony, the tenth day of the fifth month of Taishō 14”), fixing the event precisely to 10 May 1925.
The occasion is the twenty-fifth wedding anniversary of Emperor Taishō (Yoshihito) and Empress Teimei (Sadako), who had married on 10 May 1900. The silver wedding was marked by national celebrations, and commemorative postcards were issued in quantity — placing production in 1925 or very shortly after. This card is a companion issue to others in the same set, differing in the scene depicted; here the court ladies attending the rites at the Kashikodokoro, the palace sanctuary where the sacred mirror is enshrined.
Supporting evidence includes the publisher imprint of Kōbundō Nakamura with its bird trademark, the divided-back format with Japanese address guide columns typical of the Taishō era, the archaic kana orthography in the 郵便はかき heading, and the coarse-screen halftone printing characteristic of inexpensive commemorative cards of the mid-1920s.
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