Inscribed Kanji Script

rogster001 · 14 May 2013

Hi all,

I am a novice with Kanji, I can recognise some characters and would like to learn more, but what gets me is when they are stylised, almost handwriting style - I would really like to know the meaning of this block of characters - There is only one, top left that looks researchable to me, the others are too 'flashy' ! Thanks for any help.

Mike Cash · 14 May 2013

The two on the right are perfectly normally written: 成 and 化

nekojita · 14 May 2013

Bottom left: 造?

Toritoribe · 14 May 2013

That's 成化年造[Seikanenzou]. Seika (Chenghua in Chinese) is an era name in Ming Dynasty. This is originally from 大明成化年製, which was a seal for ceramics made in Chenghua era, but lately it was copied and changed to a kind of trade mark. 成化年造 was used as a seal mostly in 有田[Arita] in the late Edo period . (This doesn't guarantee that your porcelain is an original Imari, though.)

rogster001 · 15 May 2013

Thanks for the replies but i am a bit in the dark as i cant see the characters correctly in the replies - my browser ie8 is supposed to have the language packs installed but it just not showing up right - are we saying that all four characters combined mean seikanenzou??

I dont think it is an old piece, it shows some warriors swordfighting, is a nice vase, am just interested to know the translation for completeness, i never had one with an inscribed mark before.

edit: I see that if i choose reply with quote then the characters are shown in the editor window at least

rogster001 · 15 May 2013

Could it be rendered in chinese as Chenghua Nian Zhi - Chengua period made

Toritoribe · 15 May 2013

No. The original seal used in China was 大明成化年製[Dai min seika nen sei], as I wrote in my previous post. Seikanenzou was used in Japan and already lost the meaning "made in Chenghua era" at that time.

Inscribed Kanji Script

rogster001

後輩

Mike Cash

骨も命も皆此の土地に埋めよう

nekojita

先輩

Toritoribe

松葉解禁

rogster001

後輩

rogster001

後輩

Toritoribe

松葉解禁

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