In 1881, Empress Jingū became the first woman to be featured on a Japanese banknote; however, since no actual images of this legendary figure are known to exist, the representation of Jingū which was .. Read more »artistically contrived by Edoardo Chiossone is entirely conjectural. The same representation was used on the 1908/14 postage stamps
Increasingly, mail being sent overseas required high postal charges. In some cases enough stamps of existing denominations to represent the postal charge could not fit onto the package. Furthermore, a stamp of 1 yen or higher was requests for establishment of a telephone line. New stamps were therefore issued which became known as the 'large sum stamps.' These were the first ordinary stamps to feature a person (an image of Empress Jingū) in the design.
The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 damaged the original plates that had been used up until then. The design was re-drawn and new plates were made.
Japan
