Handwritten Inscription

nice gaijin

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Hey all, I was asked to help translate this signature in a book, and I'm terrible with handwriting. Could you help out? I'm told this is from a "History of Japan" book, but no search results came back with these combinations of names.

So far I have
ショーさん
？夫妻に

感謝と共に
昭和世？八月
大内照之
大内淳子

To Mr/Mrs. Sho (Shaw? It says couple so I imagine it's addressed to them both, but I can't tell what's before 夫妻)

With gratitude
Showa ??, August (can't tell what second word is)

Ouchi Nobuyuki? Teruyuki?
Ouchi Junko (or Akiko or Kiyoko or Atsuko)

 

Toritoribe

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• #2

nice gaijin said:

To Mr/Mrs. Sho (Shaw? It says couple so I imagine it's addressed to them both, but I can't tell what's before 夫妻)

Click to expand...

Right. It's 御夫妻.

nice gaijin said:

Showa ??

Click to expand...

昭和丗（＝30）年

nice gaijin said:

Ouchi Nobuyuki? Teruyuki?

Click to expand...

Teruyuki is more common.

nice gaijin said:

Ouchi Junko (or Akiko or Kiyoko or Atsuko)

Click to expand...

Junko is the most common, but yes, I know a person Atusko in the same kanji.

 

nice gaijin

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Thank you @Toritoribe for the quick help, wow no wonder I had trouble reading those two, the first one was greatly simplified and I hadn't even encountered 丗 before!! I think it's kind of beautiful, actually...

 

nice gaijin

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also, as sure as I was this was for the date, the way he wrote 年 looked flipped, but I guess it's just his cursive makes it as easy for him to write as quickly as possible. I've always felt like a person's handwriting is like their personal accent, represented visually.

 

nice gaijin

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For anyone interested, this is the book in question:

 

Toritoribe

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• 18 Mar 2021

• #6

Probably I read it by context, not reading each kanji individually, as same as people do for handwritten or hard-to-read texts in their native language. The kanji after 昭和 indeed looks like 世, but I know the kanji 丗, and supposed the kanji following 昭和丗 must be 年.

廿 and 丗 are obsolete now, so it's reasonable that you hadn't ever encountered it.