Help with Kanji

alenehan · 8 Mar 2005

Hi, I am new to this so if this is posted inappropriately I apologise in advance. I recently purchased a netsuke I was quite taken with, it has a signature as well as some text on the subject's kimono. It would be greatly appreciated if anyone could help me with translating the text, I have attached one picture and the rest can be found at:

http://photobucket.com/albums/v51/Shambla/netsuke/

Thanks ever so much for any help.
Alex

Leroy_Brown · 8 Mar 2005

Lad,

The top character is "Shu" or "Sho" (on-yomi)/"Hide" (kun-yomi), meaning excellence, beauty. Men who are named Hide-something generally use this Kanji.

The bottom one looks like "Shin" (on-yomi) / "Oya" (kun-yomi), meaning parent or familiarity.

Hope that helps.

Cheers!

alenehan · 8 Mar 2005

Thanks

Thank you ever so much Leroy, your help is much appreciated. I am finding it difficult learning spoken Japanese at teh moment so I think Kanji is a bit beyond me! Did you have any thoughts on the kimono text?

Arigato Gozai Masu!

Alex

Leroy_Brown · 8 Mar 2005

Kimono? Oh, sure thing. Let me take a loo at it.

Leroy_Brown · 8 Mar 2005

Laddie,

You mean the object that the woman in Kimono is holding? There are no Kanji on the Kimono itself.

The object she is holding is a lamp that has three Kanji characters: one for "Hi" (fire) , and two that make up "Youjin" (precaution, or care). There really should be a Hiragana "no" in between so that it all reads "Hi no youjin" (Be careful of/with fire). In the old days in Japan, people would patrol the neighborhood at night holding a lamp and yelling "Be careful of fire!"

Anytime you need some help again, just let moi know.

alenehan · 8 Mar 2005

Thanks again Leroy, it all makes sense now! I wondered what on earth the message would be!

Leroy_Brown · 8 Mar 2005

Fire patrols

I guess it's still done in some parts of Japan:

mediatinker.com

alenehan · 8 Mar 2005

It looks like it has become a real part of tradition, I wonder if it was part of a joke on the netsuke? As she is sat on a bundle of sticks, I reckon she particularly needs to look out for fire!

lexico · 8 Mar 2005

I liked the recording and the commentary. It's amazing they've been doing that since the Edo times !
"Hi no youjin!" Now could that be said in colloquial speech when you want to tell a friend, "Watch out for fire tonight!" ?

Leroy_Brown · 9 Mar 2005

lexico said:
I liked the recording and the commentary. It's amazing they've been doing that since the Edo times !
"Hi no youjin!" Now could that be said in colloquial speech when you want to tell a friend, "Watch out for fire tonight!" ?

How about "Konya kaji ni ki o tsukerundayo" ?

kaji = a fire disaster, as opposed to "hi" which is generic fire.

lexico · 9 Mar 2005

Thanks, Leroy! You are so knowledgeable, and I'm just learning.
I hope you'll be around even when I'm more ready to learn the more advanced stuff!!

Leroy_Brown · 9 Mar 2005

lexico said:
Thanks, Leroy! You are so knowledgeable, and I'm just learning.
I hope you'll be around even when I'm more ready to learn the more advanced stuff!!

Kamusamida! Chonmaneyo!

Sure! I'll try to help anyone here who is interested in learning.

But I don't care for all the stereotypes and generalizations.

lexico · 9 Mar 2005

Leroy_Brown said:
Kamusamida! Chonmaneyo!

Thanks again!
Now I recognize that as spoken Korean; obviously you've had some Korean friends!
How long have you lived in Japan ? Wait, I remember you posting about singing Yokohama!

Leroy_Brown · 9 Mar 2005

lexico said:
Thanks again!
Now I recognize that as spoken Korean; obviously you've had some Korean friends!
How long have you lived in Japan ? Wait, I remember you posting about singing Yokohama!

Sometimes I answer tha phone, "Yaboseo!" J/K!

I'm a "Chongaa".

Did you know there is a big Korea Town in Los Angeles?

I've been to Japan various times since childhood.

lexico · 9 Mar 2005

Leroy_Brown said:
I'm a "Chongaa".

I'm truely impressed, but this last word escapes me. Obviously you know something about Korean that I don't.

Leroy_Brown said:
Did you know there is a big Korea Town in Los Angeles?

I've been to Japan various times since childhood.

Yes, I've been there a couple of times; although I enjoyed China town more. I actually had the best tasting pig-feet in Los Angeles. Strange to find myself foreign to my own culture. I've also passed thru Japan once, and I remember going to the market to pick up some pretty Japanese unbrellas. They used to be real hot in the 60's. I only stayed for 2 days maybe. That was a long time ago.

Leroy_Brown · 10 Mar 2005

lexico said:
I'm truely impressed, but this last word escapes me. Obviously you know something about Korean that I don't.

"Chongaa" I thought was a word for an unmarried male. Maybe it's out of usage now.

I had a friend every time I asked where something was she said "chogi!"

lexico · 10 Mar 2005

Leroy_Brown said:
"Chongaa" I thought was a word for an unmarried male. Maybe it's out of usage now.

No, it is still in use.
You must be very attuned to language sounds to pick up that much detail from casual conversations. Koreans tend not to explode the final consonant. What you heard is written 총각 ﾃ｣`ﾅ?p "Chong-gak." It's Chinese in origin. It refers to the hair style with the growth of hair bundled up on top of the head like (a) horn(s). "Chong"=to bind. "gak"=horn. Unmarried males are supposed to have had the hair style long time ago in China, and Korean preserves the word, although the hair style has long disappeared. Young Chinese girls still have that name called Y窶慊ｪ yatou "horned head." You've probably seen Chinese dolls with two small buns on the head!

Leroy_Brown said:
I had a friend every time I asked where something was she said "chogi!"

Hahahahaha! That is really funny. "(Righ over) there!"

Leroy_Brown · 10 Mar 2005

Lexico-san,

Thank you for the detailed explanation!

Los Angeles' Chinatown is not that big. Much bigger ones are in San Francisco (best Chinese food I ever had), New York, and Seattle. But there is a section east of LA called "Monterrey Park" which is heavily Chinese.

In Japan, there are Chinatowns in Yokohama, Kobe, and Nagasaki. In Osaka and Tokyo, there are areas where you see a lot of Hangul neon signs at night.

XTC33 · 26 Apr 2005

The signature on the netsuke reads Hide-chika. It's a man's name.
The link is out of date? sorry.

Help with Kanji

alenehan

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Leroy_Brown

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alenehan

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Leroy_Brown

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Leroy_Brown

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alenehan

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Leroy_Brown

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alenehan

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lexico

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Leroy_Brown

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lexico

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Leroy_Brown

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lexico

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Leroy_Brown

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lexico

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Leroy_Brown

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lexico

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Leroy_Brown

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XTC33

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