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Nofukuji_Buddha_Postcard_020_reverse

The card is unsigned. Was the writer in a hurry, ran out of room, or just thought a signature was not necessary?

 

Peter Romaskiewicz identifies the symbol atop the vertical line is a stylized “Ueda” (上田) was the crest/trademark of the Ueda Photographic Prints Corp.

 

"With Google assistance" Bill offered a rough translation of the message:

 

“Last December I sent Juanito a letter for him and V. V. from Tsingtao, a German colony in China. Today I send you[?].”

 

(Fun fact: “alemana” is Spanish for “German.”)

 

While he was translating I looking into the history of Tsingtao.

The United Kingdom's National Army Museum has a fascinating account of the Japanese "Siege of Tsingtao" website against the German colonizers--about a year after the postcard was written.

 

It was pretty interesting to find, independently--and within a few hours of one another--that Bill and I learned that Tsingtao had been a German colony.

 

About the address and recipient, Bill noted, "There is a metro station called Sainz de Baranda, named after a 19th century mayor of Madrid. I think the Vda abbreviation is “widow of”, and there are other Sainz de Baranda names, even today. So perhaps the card was to a Sainz de Baranda’s widow, perhaps the mother or other close relative of the sender."

 

It's curious that the sender had a rubber stamp handy to print the recipient's name and address. Once again, it appears that affixing the stamp on the reverse side of the postcard didn't prevent delivery.

 

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For a view of the front side, go back to the previous image or click the scan in the first comment, below.

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Uploaded on November 17, 2023