Help identify this mystery canteen
May 30, 2009 5:54 PM   Subscribe

I am curious about the identity of this canteen. It is shiny silver color (alumnimum?). I thought I had been told it was a WWII Japanese canteen but my husband thinks the writing looks more like Chinese. Can anyone in meta-land translate the inscriptions or have any clues as what this really is?
posted by metahawk to Writing & Language (8 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I'll vote for Chinese too, just because in Japanese, one doesn't usually see that much kanji without some hiragana mixed in. The bottom character in this shot means "tea." If I'm not mistaken, the two top right characters in this shot mean "China."
posted by chez shoes at 6:33 PM on May 30, 2009


Best answer: Yup, it's Chinese, and the transcriptions even say so. Probably of very recent origin. The inscription in this shot says 中国土产畜产进出口公司 福建省分公司厦门支公司 - "China Domestic and Livestock Products Import-Export Company, Fujian Province Xiamen Branch." (they even have a website)
posted by pravit at 6:50 PM on May 30, 2009


They produce a lot of tea in Fujian province, so it wouldn't surprise me if that's what it was for.
posted by selfnoise at 7:01 PM on May 30, 2009


Are the pics of the same canteen? The first pic reads 肉桂, which means cinnamon; the second pic says (horizontal) Yi Style (vertical) Song Chang Famous Tea, and the third pic is broken for me.

I agree though, it's about the same general size and shape of a loose-leaf tea can.
posted by casarkos at 7:12 PM on May 30, 2009


Response by poster: All pictures are from the same container. The front and back have the same two characters written on them which, if casarkos is right, means "cinnamon". The other shots (S2 and S3) show the two narrow sides of the container.
posted by metahawk at 7:18 PM on May 30, 2009


Best answer: If I'm not wrong, it's 武夷肉桂(Wuyi rougui/cinnamon) tea, a specialty product of Wuyishan in Fujian province.
posted by pravit at 7:19 PM on May 30, 2009


It is shiny silver color (alumnimum?)

Aluminium will not stick to a magnet so you could check it that way.
posted by mlis at 7:55 PM on May 30, 2009


Best answer: It is a tea caddy, not a canteen. Probably aluminum. The shape is very common in China for storing tea leaves.
posted by Etaoin Shrdlu at 8:52 PM on May 30, 2009


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