Japan is a country that doesn’t do ordinary and nothing personifies this more than Kawaii culture. In a land of anime, dedicated product characters, ubiquitous city mascots, Lolita fashion, J-pop and cosplay, nothing is immune from receiving the cutesy treatment. And postboxes are no exception.
Our eye was initially caught by a truly breathtaking Game Boy themed postbox posted to twitter by user @7bXNGnHc1EgqvfS, who claims he stumbled across it while searching for somewhere to fish!
We searched for more details online but unfortunately came up blank. However, what we did discover was that this postbox is not just a quirky anomaly in the mountains of Kagawa Prefecture, but one in a long line of memorial postboxes scattered the length of breadth of the country. We immediately jumped on Instagram to see what we could find and were not disappointed. We reached out to as many users as possible and asked for permission to use their pictures. We were overwhelmed by the response and their generosity with many commenting how excited they were at being able to help share Japanese culture with the rest of the world via The Sarusawa Blog.
The fascinating history behind these creative postboxes is detailed below, but for now, please enjoy the pictures we have to offer you courtesy of Japanese Instagram users. Please show your appreciation to them by following and liking their posts. All handles and links are provided below each picture.
mmari1981m | Zoorasia Yokohama Zoological Gardens
autumn_1000 | Makoto-chan, Philatelic Museum, Mejiro, Tokyo
chignon.chignon | Kanazawa Station, Ishikawa Prefecture
coco_mio | Nagoya Aquarium, Aichi Prefecture
dai_fuku_3 | Kokeshi, Naruko, Miyagi Prefecture
dhyansukhi | Fukuoka
fm_ym | Otemachi, Tokyo
fm_ym| Isetan Department Store, Shinjuku
fugumika | Nagasaki Station, Nagasaki
hanavodka | Kumamoto Central Post Office, Kumamoto
hehey_m | Fruit Park Fujiya Hotel, Yamanashi Prefecture
route_17_from_ina | Fruit Park Fujiya Hotel, Yamanashi Prefecture
kor.kb | Shinagawa Station, Tokyo
nepoja | Shinagawa Station, Tokyo
love_ytj |Ikebukuro Station Post Office, Tokyo
lunaluna_m | Dazaihu Station, Fukuoka
m.saito.08 | Takahama, Aichi
maki_0807 | Shin-Aomori Station, Aomori Prefecture
mu_takezou | Shin-Aomori Station, Aomori Prefecture
mu_takezou | Orange-kun, Asakusa, Tokyo
mu_takezou | Asakusa, Tokyo
maki_0807 | Asakusa, Tokyo
maki_0807 | Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture
maki_0807 | Tokoname Ceramic Center, Aichi Prefecture
mipon_n | Hikone Castle, Shiga Prefecture
misari7 | Osaka
moruteka | Tokyo
moscub | Kyoto Central Post Office, Kyoto
moscub | Uji Station, Kyoto
pekopeko_kuro | The Asahiyama Zoo, Asahikawa, Hokkaido
pponzu | Yatagarasu Kumano Hongu Shrine, Wakayama
saechin.ciel | Shimane
Kumamoto
Ueno Zoo, Taito, Tokyo
100th Anniversary Tokyo Station
shurikeiko1 | Hyogo Park of the Oriental White Stork, Toyooka, Japan
tarako_tarara | Takeo Post Office, Saga
tateitoyokoito | Komagome Station, Toshima, Tokyo
the_pan0205 | Inubosaki Lighthouse, Chiba
tigermaskthe2 | Omiya Station, Saitama
trntrnt | Echigawa Station, Aisho, Shiga
yoshiakime | Ninja Hattori- kun, Shiokaze Street, Toyama
zenq1124 | Okinawa
tacchiy747 | Sugamon, Sugamo Toshima, Tokyo
5aki.t | Haneda International Airport, Tokyo
uc__ci | Kitaro, Sakaiminato, Tottori Prefecture
yukoo03 | Momotaro , Okayama Station
etonao | Abira, Iburi, Hokkaido
163chanyan | Harbor Land, Kobe
The Sarusawa Blog | Todaiji Roof, JR Nara Station, Nara Prefecture
Amazingly enough, Japan also holds the current Guinness World Record for the deepest underwater postbox at a depth of 10 meters off the coast of Susami, Wakayama Prefecture. Some 1,000 to 1,500 items of mail are here annually.
Japan built its first artistic “kinen post” or memorial postbox, a stone mailbox topped with a statue of a trumpet playing cherub, outside the Tokyo Chuo Post Office to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Japan Postal Service joining the Universal Postal Union in 1952. The second monument mailbox, commemorating the promulgation of the peace treaty that ended World War 2, was built in Hiroshima later that same year. A third one marking the construction of a new train station in Kanazawa came in 1954, and the fourth monument postbox (commemorating the 100th anniversary of the postal services joining the Universal Postal Union) didn’t come until 1977. The first 4 monument postboxes were all made to be permanent or long lasting facilities and they were all rectangular mailboxes with a sculpture on top. In 1985 a time capsule shaped mailbox was unveiled at the Tsukuba Banpaku Science Museum in Ibaraki Prefecture commemorating the sealing of a time capsule at the museum. In a departure from previous monument postboxes, the time capsule postbox was only in place for 6 months and it was designed to make passersby want to use it because it was fun and unusual. This idea caught on and more monument postboxes based on this concept popped up across the nation. Some of these new postboxes continued the original idea of marking an important anniversary, some were used to mark unique locations (such as the 0km point of the Yamanote Line at Tokyo Station) or to reflect and convey the character, history or a symbol of their municipality. Many cities and towns went all out and designed truly unique postboxes that became mini-tourist attractions in an of themselves. Instances of monument mailboxes being created to promote local areas has increased in recent years. In 2014 Tokyo’s Toshima Ward installed a yellow owl-shaped postbox outside the Ikebukuro Eki-mae Post Office as part of its urban development and tourism promotion efforts (Toshima Ward’s mascot is an owl because the ward’s shape looks like an owl in flight) and in April of this year (2016), the town of Tobe in Ehime Prefecture unveiled 4 monument postboxes topped with Tobe-yaki china pottery. This effort is to promote the town of Tobe and its signature pottery to domestic travelers ahead of a big political conference being held there next year. Japan’s unique postboxes are yet another fun thing for visitors to keep their eyes open for and a reason to step off the beaten track during their travels. The story and history behind a Game Boy shaped postbox lurking in the mountains of Kagawa Prefecture remains unclear at the time of this article’s writing. Up for a scavenger hunt? A list of Japan’s unusual monument mail boxes can be found here (Japanese)
Works consulted: http://kotaku.com/unique-japanese-mail-boxes-are-wonderful-in-rain-or-shi-972354712 http://news.mynavi.jp/articles/2015/01/15/post/ https://thepage.jp/tokyo/detail/20140526-00000007-wordleaf http://www.pref.shiga.lg.jp/kokoro/area_koto/details/4804_details.html http://spotlight-media.jp/article/276494419662965897 http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/hagureyukisan08/11937482.html http://www.sankei.com/region/news/160315/rgn1603150022-n1.html http://www.asahi.com/articles/ASJ3H4302J3HPFIB006.html http://www.tobe-kanko.jp/news/2016/03/000309.html http://www.nekopla.com/nnk/post/kinki/post_kinki.html http://homepage3.nifty.com/tobimaru777/chinpost00.htm http://gtsen.web.fc2.com/omoshiropost.html https://web.archive.org/web/20100831173515/http://www.japanpost.jp/teipark/display/museum_henre/museum_henreki_01.html http://www.postalmuseum.jp/column/transition/post_10.html http://www.postalmuseum.jp/column/transition/postbox.html
郵政省郵務局郵便事業史編纂室、「郵便創業120年の歴史」1991年 (Japanese)