Ryohei Ishikawa facts for kids

Ryohei Ishikawa (born July 1927) is a Japanese banker. He is also very famous for his amazing collection of postage stamps. People who collect stamps are called philatelists. Ishikawa collected stamps and learned about the history of mail from places like the United States, Hawaii, and Hong Kong.

His Work as a Banker

Ryohei Ishikawa was born in July 1927. He became a banker and used to be the chairman of two big companies: Chubu Bank and the Teisan Group.

His Passion for Stamps

This special block of four 1869 24c United States stamps has an upside-down center design. Ryohei Ishikawa once owned them.

This is a catalogue from 1980 for the sale of Ryohei Ishikawa's collection of stamps and postal history from the Hawaiian Islands.

Ishikawa first collected stamps when he was a child, but he stopped for a while. His interest came back in 1970 when his mother found some old stamp albums at home and gave them to him.

He decided to focus on collecting stamps from the United States. He was inspired after reading a book by Stanley B. Ashbrook about the one-cent U.S. stamp from 1851-1857. Soon, Ishikawa built one of the best collections of these classic U.S. stamps.

Amazing Stamp Collections

Besides U.S. stamps, Ishikawa also created fantastic collections of stamps and postal history from Hawaii, Hong Kong, and even foreign post offices in Japan. These collections won many awards!

His U.S. collection included every stamp issued from 1847 to 1869. It even had very rare items, like a unique group of four 1869 24-cent U.S. stamps with an upside-down center design. This special group of stamps had once belonged to another famous collector named William Thorne. Ishikawa's amazing U.S. stamp collection was sold for $9.5 million in New York in 1993.

Books About His Collections

Many books and auction catalogues have been made about Ryohei Ishikawa's incredible stamp collections.

• The Ryohei Ishikawa Collection of The Postage Stamps and Postal History of the Hawaiian Islands. Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, 1980.
• The Ryohei Ishikawa Collection: Postage Stamps and Postal History of Hong Kong and Treaty Ports. December 4th and 5th 1980. Sotheby Parke Bernet, London, 1980.
• The Ryohei Ishikawa Collection: Foreign Post Offices in Japan 7th July 1981. Sotheby Parke Bernet, London, 1981.
• The Ryohei Ishikawa Collection: United States Stamps and Covers 1847-1869 New York Tuesday, September 28 and Wednesday, September 29, 1993. Christie's, New York, 1993.
• The Forerunner Foreign Post Offices in Japan. British-U.S.-French. Ryohei Ishikawa's Collection. Japan Philatelic Publications, Tokyo, 1976.