Inscribed Kanji Script

[rogster001]

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]

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

 

[nekojita]

Bottom left: 造?

 

[Toritoribe]

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]

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]

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

 

[Toritoribe]

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.