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Possibly Antique Glass Bottle w/ Kanji or Chinese

hawkjames

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25 Dec 2014
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人保命水 角 野間屋
this is where it comes from and my rough translation, and everything i could find, everything the symbols could relate to.
upload_2014-12-24_14-10-51.png


i have this bottle that i found in my family's old stuff, and i don't know if it's a collectable or trash, and there are no markings except the kanji or chinese on the side. i can't tell which or if there's a difference. either way, i took the time to try to find each symbol one by one.
the first symbol looks more like this:
clip_image002.jpg

but i think the dots are used as punctuation for an ellipsis or something?
it doesn't look quite like the dotted tent 癶... here's a better look...
upload_2014-12-24_14-20-22.png


So if you can't see the images, I roughly translated it loosely as:

"People... partake safely of the life-threatening liquids, consumers act wild and out of control, so pace yourself and do it at home"

It kind of makes sense given the context... makes me think it's an alcohol container... but it could not be, I suppose. Is this even close? Could it be translated in other ways?

Is anyone familiar with this bottle or have a clue as to its content? It's about a pint. Small bottle... but more importantly, what does it mean?

人保命水 角 野間屋
 
"People... partake safely of the life-threatening liquids, consumers act wild and out of control, so pace yourself and do it at home"

A translation that Babelfish would be proud of. Hawkjames, if it sounds slightly ridiculous in translated form, it's usually a sign that the translation is wrong. Unfortunately I can offer nothing better, and various searches turn up precious little on this item. You have the kanji correctly identified, but I think you err in trying to translate them word-for-word and trying to construct a meaningful phrase out of them. More likely they refer to the name or brand of the contents, and the manufacturer (or possibly the seller, distributor, importer).

My guess is the first two kanji refer to Korean ginseng (人参). These two characters typically refer to carrots, but they are also used for ginseng. I think what you have is a bottle that contained some kind of ginseng spirits or perhaps some type of ginseng flavored drink that was promoted as a health tonic.
 
Please disable built-in flash when doing photos like this. Flash makes things needlessly hard to see.

I can't see the second photo. Could the last two kanji be 問屋? If so, I suspect the preceding two to be a family name or perhaps a locale. The rest is most likely "ginseng tonic"

Edit: 野間 is a family name. 野間屋 is their shop
 
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