Hey,Suginami!!Advice needed!!
 

I recently bought the contents of a Cove Neck estate and need your faultless linguistic knowledge.

This lovely sumidagawa vase is,I conclude early Meiji based upon the partial glazing and the red Oxblood paint.

Can you or your accomplished spouse interpret the cartouche with the characters?they may be either Kiratana or Kangi,based upon my severely limited knowledge.
Any help would doubtless be very much appreciated.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...e/DSC00001.jpghttp://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...DSC00002-1.jpg

They say, roughly,

"Vase crack in kiln. No good. Sell to gai-jin"

;)

P.S. Cool-looking book, what is it?

Like whats on your PC there.:D

Whats up with that book looks cool!

as an aside (cause i cannot help with the vase at all of course) there is an incredible display at our art museum right now of sixty hand made baskets from japan ranging from the early 1800s to 1930. they are just increible in their artistic quality and craftsmanship.

they happen to belong to someone i know fairly well.

the art of japan is so very very different from anything i am familiar with form western cultures!

tom w

My wife doesn't even recognize the characters. She has no idea what they are, to the point that she doesn't even know if they are Japanese. :confused:

Do these look more familiar? I'm guessing your glyphs are from the late '60s...

http://filmswords.com/images/conan/e...lbyRonCobb.jpg

http://www.planetpals.com/peace/peace3.gif

Remember that post war controversy about the "Made in USA" labels? :D

Usa, Japan

Well, thanks anyway,I'm going to dope it out further since Kangi is considered archaic by modern standards.

The story is that when Teddy Roosevelt brokered the Treaty of Portsmouth,after the Russo-Japanese war he entertained many of the diplomats and nobility at Sagamore Hill,his estate on Cove Neck a stone's throw from my cleanout. Local lore holds the Japanese delegation presented object of art,swords,pottery and even Arisaka 99's to the local Gentry who entertained them during their brief sojourn here.

Don't get me started on that inaccurate,unrealistic specious crap!

Those 2,man,could I tell some stories....not here though.

Oh, the "book"is actually a box made of bronze with nephrite lid and bottom,these pieces are keepers.