Yamaha Bicycle License Plate

次回、この記事の日本語版を投稿します。

Yamaha Corporation, is well-known for its long history of producing high quality musical instruments.  
 S-san, a fellow vintage Japanese utility bicycle enthusiast from Hiroshima, recently sent me a photograph of what appears to be a very rare bicycle license plate related to Yamaha Corporation.  Let's take a look.

It is important to note that in the 1950s bicycles were prized possessions; similar to automobile ownership today as they cost more than two months' salary, were taxed and had license plates. Since the local municipality oversaw the implementation of the "bicycle tax", the design of these "license plates", as well as the mounting location (handlebars, head tube, rear fender, etc.), varied greatly from town to town.  Even bicycle trailers were taxed and had license plates.

Although there were many different designs of bicycle license plates during the final period of bicycle taxation in Japan (1950-1958) I'm fond of this particular type as it was attached to the handlebars, and, had a simple built-in anti-theft device. Notice the license plate below bears the numbers 3977.  Also, if you look closely, there appears to be a strip running across the middle of the numbers.  This strip is actually a removable sliding plate.

When the owner arrived at the desired destination, after locking the bicycle, the owner removed the sliding plate and took it with them.  If, while they were away, someone were to steal the bicycle the red blank was a beacon for the authorities that the bicycle was stolen. 

There are 3 points that make this particular license plate a mystery.

The first is the company name in red characters at the top.  The characters 日本楽器 read "NIHON GAKKI" is modern day Yamaha Corporation.  This is the first time I have ever seen a bicylcle license plate with a company name on it.

Normally the name of the town is stamped at the top as seen in the example below 一宮市 ICHINOMIYA City.

At the bottom in red characters 自転車番号 reads "JITENSHA BANGO", literally bicycle (registration) number.
Normally it would read 自転車鑑札 "JITENSHA KANSATSU", bicycle license (tax badge).

The second mystery is that the license plate only has four digits.  Typical license plates had 5 digits as shown below.

The third thing that makes this license plate mysterious is the Art Deco fashion decorative stamping pattern.

Note how ornate the design above is compared to regular designs below.

Why does this bicycle license plate have the company name, Yamaha Corporation?
Why does it only read "Bicycle Number" and not bicycle license?
Why does it only have 4 digits?
Why is the design so decorative?

Could it be pre-WWII?  I doubt it as after the war, in 1946 many characters were simplified.  And the license plate uses the simplified version 自転車 as opposed to the older more complicated version 自轉車.

Could it be that it is not a license plate at all, and, instead, simply a plate utilized by Yamaha Corporation to keep track of each bicycle?  Possibly, but would the company have so many bicycles (3977)? And, if so why would it be in the same design as regular bicycle license plates?

Thanks to S-san for sending in photos of this mysterious rare bicycle license plate.  If you have any theories, information or actual examples similar to this one, please send information/photos to showajitensha@hotmail.co.jp