This one’s a first day cover (FDC) for Japan’s Second National Park Stamp Series — specifically the Nikkō set.
The Stamps
Four stamps commemorating Nikkō National Park, issued September 1, 1962 (Shōwa 37) as part of Japan’s “Second National Park Series” — a long-running program (1962–1974, 52 stamps total) that succeeded the prewar “First National Park Series.” The stamps were issued in denominations of 5 yen and 10 yen, with 9 million printed.
Going by the imagery:
Purple/violet 10-yen — a lake with a mountain behind it, almost certainly Lake Chūzenji (中禅寺湖) with Mt. Nantai (男体山) rising behind it — the park’s signature view.
Olive/gold 10-yen — a wooded gorge or stream, likely one of the park’s famous waterfalls or river valleys (Kirifuri or Ryūzu falls area).
Blue 5-yen — a wetland with a mountain reflected in still water — this looks like Senjōgahara (戦場ヶ原), the marshland plateau below Mt. Nantai.
Brown/red 5-yen — steam or mist rising off a hillside — likely one of the volcanic hot-spring areas near Yumoto Onsen (湯元温泉), within the park.
The Postmarks
There are two different special first-day pictorial cancels (特印), both dated 37. 9. 1 (September 1, 1962), each from a different post office — a common FDC practice in Japan where multiple offices tied to a stamp’s subject each get their own commemorative design:
Left: 日光 NIKKO — shows a bridge (likely the sacred red Shinkyō Bridge at the entrance to Nikkō’s shrines), mountain peaks, and a jet plane, suggesting the Nikkō post office cancel.
Right: 群馬 片品 (Gunma, Katashina) — shows a marsh/lake outline and flowering plants, almost certainly referencing Oze (尾瀬), the famous highland marsh known for its skunk cabbage (mizubasho) blooms. Katashina Village in Gunma Prefecture is the main gateway to Oze, which is part of Nikkō National Park even though it’s a fair distance from Nikkō itself — the park spans four prefectures (Tochigi, Gunma, Fukushima, Niigata).
So this cover was specially prepared by a collector or dealer to catch two different first-day cancellations from two different prefectures, both tied to different corners of the same national park — a nice touch, since it visually ties together the mountain/lake scenery around Nikkō itself with the separate Oze wetland area the park also protects.
The Cachet
The painted mountain-and-lake scene across the bottom is a cachet — decorative artwork added to the envelope specifically for the first-day-of-issue release, standard practice for FDCs worldwide. It appears to depict Mt. Nantai over Lake Chūzenji again, reinforcing the stamp series’ theme, with the English title block up top confirming the series name and date for English-speaking collectors — suggesting this was likely produced with export/foreign collectors in mind, which was fairly common for Japanese FDCs of this era.
![A Dirona albolineata, commonly known as frosted nudibranch, swims in a tide pool at Brackett’s Landing Park on Monday in Edmonds.[Caption from The Seattle Times, photo by Nick Wagner / The Seattle Times]](https://www.willemsplanet.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/low_162211.jpg)
