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mefuji

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25 Aug 2011
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I'm wondering about what appears to be a scarf. It looks like some sort of commemorative souvenir. There are 3 of them, one with black print, one with red and one with blue. They appear to be made of silk and measure approximately 36" by 36". Thank you for looking.
 

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The kanji printed on the paper bag in the second picture is 廣島名所風呂敷[Hiroshima meisyo furoshiki] "Furoshiki with Hiroshima's famous spots printed on it". Thus, it would be not a scarf but a wrapping cloth.😌 The building printed on the close is A-Bomb Dome.
(The first kanji 廣 is an old character form, so it might be a relatively old furoshiki.)
 
Is there a stamp mark on it, or a name representing the maker of the furoshiki? If so can you take a snap shot of it?
 
Thank you for the helpful information. It makes sense that it is a wrapping. I couldn't quite figure it out! How old do you think the furoshiki is? My guess is that it is at least 50 years if not older. Thank you again!

Japxican, there isn't a stamp anywhere on the wrapping. :Thank you.
 
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One of the news stories on the furoshiki talks about an October coal mine strike in Fukuoka. That took place in 1960-62.
Miike coal mine - Wikipedia

This site says there were massive strikes from 1953 to 1960.
Omuta: The shopping arcades of a thousand bankruptcies
Omuta is an old coal town: the stones that burn with a flame are said to have been discovered as long ago as 1469. Mining was industrialized across the Mitsui Miike coalfields in the late 19th century but the post-WWII history was grim: massive strikes rocked the region from 1953 to 1960 against redundancy programs and then in 1963 a dust explosion left 458 miners dead in Japan's worst postwar industrial disaster. A mine fire in 1983 took the lives of another 83 colliers and the last mine closed in March 1997. But coal had attracted an array of chemical and other heavy industrial firms, many linked to the mighty Mitsui combine, and the loss of coal did not bring on complete collapse.
 
Glenski, thank you. There must be a lot of interesting history on the furoshiki that I never knew! I can learn so much history from this one piece of cloth. 👍
 
The bit above the coal mine strike article refers to the Heiress Presumptive, Princess Elizabeth and her husband, so that had to have come from between the time of her marriage in November 1947 and her ascension to the throne in February 1952.

Of course, it is impossible to know how the collage of articles were put together and whether they all came from the same period or were even contemporary articles. All that can be said for certain is that the furoshiki was produced sometime after November 1947. How much after is anybody's guess.
 
I will try to post more photos. Thank you, Mike. Most of the articles are dated sometime in October but doesn't say what year. Just based on who owned these furoshikis, my guess is that they are pretty old and well-preserved.
 
The slogan - No More Hiroshimas
"No More Hiroshimas." It appeared on the front page of the Chugoku Shimbun on August 1, 1948, three years after the atomic bombing. The article stated that "The city, which was said would be barren earth for 75 years, has begun rising again as a city of peace with a cry of 'No More Hiroshimas!'" At the memorial ceremony on August 6 that year, this slogan, using the plural form, was displayed in English on a large sign.

the first "No More Hiroshimas" appeared in an article of the Pacific Stars and Stripes, a newspaper published for U.S. military stationed abroad, on March 5, 1948. The article notes that Reverend Kiyoshi Tanimoto of Nagarekawa Church in Hiroshima called for a campaign to make August 6 "World Peace Day" with the hope that there would be "no more Hiroshimas."

This article was written by a reporter for United Press International, Rutherford M. Poats. Mr. Ubuki says it was the oldest mention of "Hiroshimas" among all the references he could confirm.

It seems the truth is that after the article by Mr. Poats appeared, a group led by Rev. Tanimoto developed the "No More Hiroshimas campaign" to establish August 6 as a day of remembrance. As the campaign grew, the slogan spread.
 
I know what they meant, but it is a little odd to say "No More Hiroshimas" when you're embarking on the process of making what was essentially another Hiroshima.

As far as that goes, "No More Hiroshimas" could equally as aptly been shouted by the bombardier who dropped the bomb that flattened Hiroshima.
 
What you write is true. Yet, take it form a country that at the time did no speak much English, as compared to today. Alao a majority of their English was European in that area of Japan - and the use of the plural is indicative of it. It is just a slogan - short adn sweet with a pertinent message of teh time.
 
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