Nippon (Japan) 1891-1921
Nippon also written Nihon, is the Japanese name for the country of Japan, meaning the "Land of the Rising Sun". On porcelain this word spelled out as "NIPPON", occurs in the backstamps of Japanese wares from around 1891 until early 1920s. Most pieces marked "Nippon" were exported out from Japan by the company that later would become Noritake Company even if this by far was not the only one.
Regarding Japanese NIPPON marks in the US, this started with the so called McKinley Tariff Act from 1891 that stated that all items exported to US should be marked with the name of the country it came from.
On Japanese pottery and porcelain the name that got used was NIPPON meaning "raising sun" which is the Japanese name for Japan, but written in western characters. Around 1921 this was changed to the western name "Japan" or the phrase "Made in Japan" in western characters.
This gives us the rule that NIPPON is 1891-1921 and "Japan/Made in Japan" is after 1921. This however helpful rule doesn't apply for pieces exported to other countries than the US and not even to all pieces exported to America, becuase sometimes paper labels that might have fallen off was used. So, while finding a back stamp saying "Nippon" is a useful dating aid, its absence is not determinative.
Regarding porcelain marked with Japanese charcters Nichi Hon or Dai Nichi Hon reading Nippon or Dai Nippon (=Japan) written in Japanese kanji characters this could be found on Japanese porcelain unrelated to customs regulations, clear from the Meiji period (1868-1912) all through the Taisho period (1913-1926) and up until at least the second WW.
The three character mark Dai + Nichi + Hon reading Dai Nippon (= Great Japan) it is generally felt that this on the whole date to the Meiji (1868-1912) period, reflecting the greatly increased nationalism of that period
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