Happy Valentine day to anyone who celebrate them. Valentine's Day is an annual holiday held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions. The holiday is named after one or more early Christian martyrs named Valentine and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496 AD. It is traditionally a day on which lovers express their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as "valentines"). Modern Valentine's Day symbols include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid.
Photo: 1899 Russian 10 Ruble Gold Coin, Tsar Nicholas II by eBay seller troy100000
In Japan, a Russian gold coin found in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, on which the names of a Japanese woman and Russian man were carved could be a memento of a romance between a Russian prisoner of war and a Japanese nurse. The 10 ruble coin, minted in 1899, was found in a well on the premises of Matsuyama Castle where a hospital taking in prisoners from the Russia-Japanese War (1904-1905).
On the coin were the names Naka Takeba and Mikhail Kostenko in Japanese "katakana" characters, as well as the Russian alphabet equivalent of M. Kostenko. According to the city's education board, there was an article in an old local newspaper suggesting the two were in love but were torn apart in the end. In the Kainan Shimbun newspaper, now the Ehime Shimbun, issued in 1904, there was a report about a female nurse named Naka Takeba working at the Imperial Japanese Army hospital on the castle premises where the Russian prisoners were institutionalised. The city reported earlier that the Japanese name found on the coin was Ka Tachibana but it later corrected the name to Naka Takeba.
The couple might have expressed their feelings by engraving their names on the coin as society back then would not allow a romance beyond national borders. This show how a coin can tell a love story between two people with a different language and both of their country are in war. Back then, their love story maybe will not be accpeted by anyone. Nowadays, reading how they carving the gold coin with their name already show how romantic their love journey has been.
On the coin were the names Naka Takeba and Mikhail Kostenko in Japanese "katakana" characters, as well as the Russian alphabet equivalent of M. Kostenko. According to the city's education board, there was an article in an old local newspaper suggesting the two were in love but were torn apart in the end. In the Kainan Shimbun newspaper, now the Ehime Shimbun, issued in 1904, there was a report about a female nurse named Naka Takeba working at the Imperial Japanese Army hospital on the castle premises where the Russian prisoners were institutionalised. The city reported earlier that the Japanese name found on the coin was Ka Tachibana but it later corrected the name to Naka Takeba.
The couple might have expressed their feelings by engraving their names on the coin as society back then would not allow a romance beyond national borders. This show how a coin can tell a love story between two people with a different language and both of their country are in war. Back then, their love story maybe will not be accpeted by anyone. Nowadays, reading how they carving the gold coin with their name already show how romantic their love journey has been.
Source: Kyodo News, Bernama
