A good picture of the sticker on the bottom of the saucer may help put a date on the set. Other than that it'll be like finding a needle in a hay stack. Or perhaps you could mail a picture of the cup and the sticker to Replacements.com. Linda C

Annie, I think you'll find on a closer look that the fingers are the photographer's reflected in the very shiny surfaqce of the silver. The "other writing" is what is written around the camera's lens also reflected- the letters are a mirror image. The scratches are on the silver.

The mark certainly suggests it was either for export, or for sales to foreign market stationed in Japan. Did any of your relatives do a stint there on active duty with the military? It looks to be a nice quality, and I am not at all familiar with the maker, either. The only thing I can add to the comments are that it's not unusual to find tea sets actually sold in the country of Japan to have a setting for five. It doesn't mean that it's less than a complete set (like for six or eight). When my mother would go marketing or buy china, it was pretty common for the vendors to throw in a freebie to bring the number up to five. I have several sets of china meant to be sets of five. It was an auspicious number.

Do you have a photo? Servicemen brought or sent a *lot* of beautiful china tea sets to the United States from "Occupied Japan" after World War II. My uncle sent them to all 8 of his sisters & both sisters-in-law & his mother! My mother (an in-law) got one with gold & silver-gray flowers, & my Granny got one with evergreen trees. If you held the tea cups up to the light, you could see the imprint of a geisha in the bottom. Best luck with your tea set, & thanks for the trip in the way-back machine!