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Translation of old Kanji

Groffy

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17 Jul 2014
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Can someone help me with a translation. I obtained a 5 Yen bank note about 20-30 years ago as a hobby. Its quite an old one and it has some writing on it. I have no idea what it may be. A friend of mine in Japan showed to to some of his colleagues and they said that it was very old and not many people are able to read it these days.
Jap Money 001_cr.jpg
Is anyone able to translate this
many thanks in advance...
John Groffen
Whyalla SA
Australia
 
Hello Groffy,

I wouldn't say the age of the script makes it undecipherable. The Japanese use of kanji and kana didn't change so much in the last 70 years that the letters of that time would be unrecognizable by the Japanese of today. Rather, the script on your note is hastily hand-written, scribbled, and is basically undecipherable because of the way it is written. I'm not even sure it is a meaningful sentence. It looks to me like the same character is repeated several times, and so it reminds me of someone scribbling out letters in an effort to try to remember how a certain word is spelled. That's just my impression. I could easily be wrong.

The note itself is a world war II era 5-yen note from the Japanese military. Wikipedia tells me it would have been issued after the Manchurian Incident.

An interesting note. You can find them on the Japanese auction sites (not worth very much - $10 - $20 bucks maybe).
 
Hello Groffy,

I wouldn't say the age of the script makes it undecipherable. The Japanese use of kanji and kana didn't change so much in the last 70 years that the letters of that time would be unrecognizable by the Japanese of today. Rather, the script on your note is hastily hand-written, scribbled, and is basically undecipherable because of the way it is written. I'm not even sure it is a meaningful sentence. It looks to me like the same character is repeated several times, and so it reminds me of someone scribbling out letters in an effort to try to remember how a certain word is spelled. That's just my impression. I could easily be wrong.

The note itself is a world war II era 5-yen note from the Japanese military. Wikipedia tells me it would have been issued after the Manchurian Incident.

An interesting note. You can find them on the Japanese auction sites (not worth very much - $10 - $20 bucks maybe).

I thought it may have been a shopping list... a message of some sort. But thank you for your explanation... Appreciate it muchly.
 
I'm not even sure it is a meaningful sentence. It looks to me like the same character is repeated several times, and so it reminds me of someone scribbling out letters in an effort to try to remember how a certain word is spelled.
I totally agree with Majestic-san. I have the same impression about the script.
 
I totally agree with Majestic-san. I have the same impression about the script.
Thank you Majestic-san and Tortoribe-san, what a shame it wasn't anything exciting but I appreciate your rapid responses. Very grateful.

So, no secret plans or assignations and not even a shopping list; Ah well...
 
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