Theme of the stamp
B. M. Eliášová (1874-1957) was the first Czech female traveller who went around the world. An orphan since her four years of age, she was brought up at the community cost in her native Jiříkovice village near Brno. The local teacher Jan Hudeček who paid a great attention to the talented Eliášová had an essential effect on her life. From the age of fourteen she worked as a charwoman. As a graduate from a private language school in Prague she taught mainly English and German at girls' schools. In July 1912 she took a year's holiday, went to Vladivostok by train from where she voyaged to Japan. She first lived in the family of the English university teacher Lawrence, later in a hotel at the outskirts of Tokyo occupied solely by the Japanese. She again worked as a language teacher. Soon she learned Japanese and made many friends among her students and colleagues. This gave her the opportunity to learn in detail about everyday life and the famous history of Japan. Eliášová was the first European student of an ikebana course - the traditional Japanese art of flower arrangement. In 1915, after her return back to Bohemia via the United States, she published the book A Year of Life Among the Japanese and Around the Globe" to meet the great interest in her experiences. In 1920 she returned to Japan as an officer of the Czechoslovak Embassy in Tokyo. A fellow of the Woman University and the Waseda University, she made a series of lectures on Czechoslovakia and wrote articles for Czech and Japanese periodicals. Eliášová stayed in Japan for several times more; in 1923 she lived through the deadly Yokohama earthquake. Back at home she gave radio and public lectures on her stories and experiences from her travels through Hong-Kong, Singapore, Ceylon, China, Korea, the Soviet Union, Java, Australia, Africa. The author of several books, she spent her last years in Roztoky u Prahy and Prague. The postage stamp pays tribute to this remarkable and brave woman.
Method of printing
rotary recess print in black combined with photogravure in greygreen, orange and blue