- 12 Oct 2013
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The first thing in that string is not a kanji. It is a logo of the company. In this case, the company is Jūfuku Suisan (重複水産).
I think officially its called a nijirushi (荷印) which means "packing mark", but most people call it a yagō (屋号) or "company mark/name".
Actually its more like a brand (as in a brand a rancher puts on cattle). It represents a shorthand form of the business owner's name. The katakana イ inside of an angled line, probably means the owner/founder's name started with イ (something like Ichirō or Ichibei or something like that).
Most old firms had a logo like this. A site I read said that this was due to most farmers not having last names during Edo times, and they started incorporating their first name into a kind of "brand name" or "logo" so that they could easily be identified. You can see these types of old style logos everywhere. Here's a page of them
I think officially its called a nijirushi (荷印) which means "packing mark", but most people call it a yagō (屋号) or "company mark/name".
Actually its more like a brand (as in a brand a rancher puts on cattle). It represents a shorthand form of the business owner's name. The katakana イ inside of an angled line, probably means the owner/founder's name started with イ (something like Ichirō or Ichibei or something like that).
Most old firms had a logo like this. A site I read said that this was due to most farmers not having last names during Edo times, and they started incorporating their first name into a kind of "brand name" or "logo" so that they could easily be identified. You can see these types of old style logos everywhere. Here's a page of them
屋号を分解すると、読み方が分かる｜高橋万太郎 / 職人醤油｜note
醤油メーカーは創業から百年以上というのが珍しくありません。「うちはまだ90年なんです。業界的には新参者です」なんて話していたりも。だから、歴史を刻んだ建物と共に屋号をもっていることが多いです。 これら屋号や商標を分解してみるとおもしろくて、大抵は2つの要素の組み合わせになっています。例えば、キッコーマンは「亀甲＋萬」、ヒガシマルは「東＋丸」のようにです。 ここには蔵元の姿勢や願いが込められているといわれ、マルは「正しい間違った商売をしない」、カネは「曲尺（かねじゃく）のように真っ直ぐであること」、ヤマは「山のように盛り上がり、その頂点を極めたい」といった意味があるそうです。 こう