Japanese Pottery Translation, HELP!

[Breetai]

Hina-ningyo?

Yeah, it's Japanese. The third photo seems to be describing the painting on it, possibly in a poem? I'm guessing the context is talking about the mountain that you can see, but I really can't understand the details. I'm not sure about the kanji on the second and third lines (reading from the right). The forth photo is probably the author's/artist's name. It ends in "--ko", so I wonder if it is female. Often names that end in "ko" are female.
The writing on the bottom does mean "big" in one of the characters, but it doesn't actually mean "big." In context, it's probably just the name of the doll, author or a location. The "big" character is just part of the name.

Sorry, but that's all I've got. Hope that helps.

<rant>
Oh, that Korean person who told you it is in Manderin is an ignorant fool. Sorry, but there's no other way to say it. Koreans learn about 2000 Chinese characters (they call them "hanja") by the time they are done high school. They do have a fair bit of Japanese pop culture floating around Korea. If they actually thought that was Manderin, then they really didn't pay attention in school or to the world around them. Maybe they didn't finish high school and don't look past their own noses? Then why do they know English to communicate with you?
<end rant>

[dedalusdedalus]

<rant>
Oh, that Korean person who told you it is in Manderin is an ignorant fool. Sorry, but there's no other way to say it. Koreans learn about 2000 Chinese characters (they call them "hanja") by the time they are done high school. They do have a fair bit of Japanese pop culture floating around Korea. If they actually thought that was Manderin, then they really didn't pay attention in school or to the world around them. Maybe they didn't finish high school and don't look past their own noses? Then why do they know English to communicate with you?
<end rant>

But then again, he might be Korean-American, in which case it illustrates the cultural insularity of Americans in general and/or the failures of the US education system.

I find his assessment that the writing was "Mandarin" to be especially laughable. Mandarin is spoken differently from the other dialects, but it's written using the same characters. As it is, there's currently two systems for writing Chinese characters - "simplified" and "traditional."

[BoringSupreez]

<rant>
Oh, that Korean person who told you it is in Manderin is an ignorant fool. Sorry, but there's no other way to say it. Koreans learn about 2000 Chinese characters (they call them "hanja") by the time they are done high school. They do have a fair bit of Japanese pop culture floating around Korea. If they actually thought that was Manderin, then they really didn't pay attention in school or to the world around them. Maybe they didn't finish high school and don't look past their own noses? Then why do they know English to communicate with you?
<end rant>

But then again, he might be Korean-American, in which case it illustrates the cultural insularity of Americans in general and/or the failures of the US education system.

Oh, come now, there's no reason Americans should be required to learn Chinese or Korean in school.

[dedalusdedalus]

<rant>
Oh, that Korean person who told you it is in Manderin is an ignorant fool. Sorry, but there's no other way to say it. Koreans learn about 2000 Chinese characters (they call them "hanja") by the time they are done high school. They do have a fair bit of Japanese pop culture floating around Korea. If they actually thought that was Manderin, then they really didn't pay attention in school or to the world around them. Maybe they didn't finish high school and don't look past their own noses? Then why do they know English to communicate with you?
<end rant>

But then again, he might be Korean-American, in which case it illustrates the cultural insularity of Americans in general and/or the failures of the US education system.

Oh, come now, there's no reason Americans should be required to learn Chinese or Korean in school.

Learn? Certainly not.

I can't read or speak Greek or Russian, but I can tell the difference between these just by looking at the text. I was simply saying it's a shame that our culture and/or education system has failed to instill in this person even the basic intellectual curiosity to acquire the very rudimentary knowledge required to tell the difference between two completely different writing systems.

Also, I did write "and/or" in my prior comment. If you don't understand why I'm pointing this out, I'm not even going to bother discussing with you the nuances of this conjunction.

/end rant.

Sorry to crap your thread. Good luck with your antiquing!

[brunoafh]

A friend of mine was able to decipher that the pottery is from the Naruko Hot Springs in Osaki City, Miyagi Prefecture from the 4th pic. The few people I've shown the pics too all say the same thing, the handwriting is too difficult to make out. Hope I was able to be of some help, good luck.

[Breetai]

A friend of mine was able to decipher that the pottery is from the Naruko Hot Springs in Osaki City, Miyagi Prefecture from the 4th pic. The few people I've shown the pics too all say the same thing, the handwriting is too difficult to make out. Hope I was able to be of some help, good luck.

Awesome!!!!!!

But then again, he might be Korean-American, in which case it illustrates the cultural insularity of Americans in general and/or the failures of the US education system.

I find his assessment that the writing was "Mandarin" to be especially laughable. Mandarin is spoken differently from the other dialects, but it's written using the same characters. As it is, there's currently two systems for writing Chinese characters - "simplified" and "traditional."

But he said Korean, not Korean-American. There's a pretty big difference often, as you just illustrated.

Yeah, there is simplified and traditional, but neither look anything like Japanese kana. ANYONE who can read any Chinese can see a difference immediately.

Maybe Luke didn't as an actual Korean*, but a Korean-American or something like that.

*I define this by culture before bloodlines.

Sorry to crap your thread. Good luck with your antiquing!

I think I was the first to the WC here.

[Luke]

A friend of mine was able to decipher that the pottery is from the Naruko Hot Springs in Osaki City, Miyagi Prefecture from the 4th pic. The few people I've shown the pics too all say the same thing, the handwriting is too difficult to make out. Hope I was able to be of some help, good luck.

Awesome. Thanks so much, this really helps.

Oh, my friend is Korean-American.

[brunoafh]

Actually, got a few more bits of information for you Luke. I'll just copy/paste the answers I got. First one:

"It's either a haiku or tanka...I can't make it all out but:

EDIT:
I found the poem:

陸奥は遥かなれども、夢にまでこころの山々、こころのこけし

It's a poem about 鳴子 (bruno note: this is the kanji for the Naruko) but I'm not sure what the source is...might be the Fudoki."

More detailed one:

"This is a tanka (5-7-5-7-7)

みちのくは
遥かなれども
夢にまで
心の山々
心のこけし

(michinoku wa, harukanare domo, yume ni made, kokoro no yamayama, kokoro no kokeshi)

roughly translated to

Michinoku may be distant, but in it, mountains and kokeshi to my hearts' desire.

The fourth line is also cited to be 心の山路 (kokoro no yamaji) which actually has 7 mora and fits the traditional tanka form compared to the 8 of "kokoro no yamayama", but that's what's written there. The meaning slightly changes as "yamaji" means mountain roads, although they roughly mean the same thing (shittons of mountains wooo).

It's by poet 深澤要 (Fukazawa Kaname) from the poetry collection 奧羽餘情 (Ōu yojō lit. Ōu Impressions, Ōu being a combination of the names of the old provinces of Mutsu 陸奥 (also known as Michi no oku/Michinoku) and Dewa 出羽 in remote north-eastern Japan. Its name lives on today in the Ōu Main Line.) first published in 1947. Fukazawa Kaname was apparently quite the lover of kokeshi, a type of Japanese doll originating from northern Japan.

The "pottery" appears to be a kokeshi, and Naruko claims to be where kokeshi originated. "

[Luke]

Actually, got a few more bits of information for you Luke.

You rock so hard!

Thank you so much for this information. This pottery has been so much of a mystery, and to learn about it is fascinating.

Thanks again!