Maeda Kihei a.k.a. KAMIGATA

  early litho 15sen with wada cancel

ex KB1

Kamigata was not the producer of litho facsimiles attributed to him, but merely the publisher. The engraver and printer of tourist sheets was Maeda Kihei from Shiba Ward in Tokyo.  only unused kobans appeared on K-series sheets; used later appeared as packets and wada sheets.  Regarding the Maeda–Kamigataya connection, Maeda was the original owner of the Kamigata-ya chain. He opened the first store in 1885. By 1914 they were run by the Kataoka family, I’m not sure exactly when the ownership changed.

MAEDA – PHILATELIC FORGER: Maeda was a master Japanese forger of Japanese classic-era postage stamps and postal stationery working under the name of the Kamigata-ya Shop; his works are refered to as the ‘Kamigata Forgeries. He also forged the same items for countries as diverse as China, France, Great Britain, Hawai’I, India, Korea, Liberia, México, North Borneo, Russia, Shanghai, Taiwan, and the United States. His lithographed forgeries were of a quality ranging from poor to excellent, and were plainly sold as being ‘copyrighted imitations’, although at least some re-sellers represented them as being genuine.

FFE #10 PRODUCER OF FORGERIES OF THE EARLY JAPANESE POSTAGE STAMPS  Mamoru Sawa

This article concerns forgeries of early Japanese stamps from the Dragon, Cherry Blossom and Koban issues. The article presents a thorough examination of two of the top producers of forgeries, Wada Kotaro, top maker of forgeries in the Meiji Era, and Maeda Kihei, founder of the Kamigata-ya shop. The world renown Wada Kotaro produced, marketed and distributed forgeries of early Japanese postage stamps, as did the Kamigata-ya shop. Among other things, the Kamigata-ya dealt in forgeries of the Koban 45 sen stamps, and some Cherry Blossom stamps.