Old diary 1905

[alvaro]

Hello.

I have just bought this old diary.
The only thing I know is that the diary is from 1905. It starts on february 10, just before the battle of Mukden. May be there is some thing about this battle written on it.
The diary runs for 6 months.

In the first page, could be the name of the owner?

Any help would be welcome.
Thank you.

 

[Majestic]

清水芳助殿　Shimizu Yoshisuke-dono.

It might be the recipient's name, rather than the author, as the suffix dono implies that the writings are intended to be sent to Shimizu.

I can't quite figure out the title. Next to the date is 露征紀念 (memorial for victory over Russia - although this is usually spelled with the first two characters inverted 征露紀念) - indicating that this could have been written after the war as a memoir. Under that is 戦友名人薄 which is slightly mysterious to me. 戦友 is war buddy (brother in arms). 名人 is famous person. 薄 means thin, and I was thinking this could be a typo for 簿, which means ledger. Anyway, I guess this is a remembrance of the war (maybe copied from diaries since the weather is written next to each date, which would be a bit of detail that would be hard to recall without looking at some kind of notes).

 

[Toritoribe]

There are レ点（返り点）at the under left of 露 and 名, so this would mean that the writer mis-wrote these compound words, and they should be converted to 征露 and 人名, respectively.

 

[alvaro]

Hello.

Thank you for your comments. They are always helpfuly.
Now, I am understanding better what it concretely is.

At the end of the book there is a list of this comrades in the war. Indicating names, directions, occupations, and may be ranks.
I can identify names as Oita, fukuoka, saga, yamaguti.....

 

[Toritoribe]

Those are names of prefectures, i.e., their addresses. The people's names are at the bottom of each line, e.g. Sibata Tatsunosuke, Yamamoto Yanosuke, Tsuneoka Shōnosuke, etc. Also, their jobs are written at the middle of the lines, like policeman, merchant, ironsmith, barber, farmer, teacher, etc.