Posted 9 years ago
DerBayz
(89 items)
My co-worker brought this item to me today. He said his father brought it home from Japanese after WWII. He said that they always used it as an ashtray but I don't see an ashtray. Does anyone know what this is or what the signature on the bottom means?
My wife says the Kanji as pictured is upside down. However, even right side up, she is unable to read it, which means it is not one of the 1,130 most commonly used Kanji on a daily basis in Japan. Oh, and by the way, my wife says these were commonly used as ashtrays in Japan when she was a young girl. [;>)
I let him read your message, so he knows he was right and I was wrong. I just seems so pretty to be used as an ashtray.
I updated two of the pictures and fixed the upside down writing.
I showed my wife the Kanji again, and she says yes, it's right side up now. But she's still unable to read it. Even though she's native Japanese, it's not uncommon that she's unable to read every Kanji, and here's why: There are 50,000 Kanji in the Japanese writing system. Of that number, 3,266 are in common every day use, of which 1,13o must be memorized by students for graduation from high school. That leaves 2,136 commonly used Kanji that a great number of Japanese have never even seen. Even those with a Masters degree or PhD from the most prestigious college in Japan cannot read every Kanji in existence. [;>)
Oh I didn't redo the pictures for her to try again. I did it out of respect for the language and culture. :D I understand why nobody can know every Japanese character.