Japanese Calligraphy Translation

April 7, 2013 9:06 AM

In one of Toko Shinoda's prints there is some Japanese calligraphy in gold. Can anyone translate it for me?

I also uploaded a higher resolution copy of the image if that's helpful.

posted by gregr to Media & Arts (3 answers total)

I am utterly crap at decoding this sort of calligraphy (I can barely read my teacher's handwriting, which is pretty bad, to be fair). It looks like two characters, though, with the bottom half maybe being 村 ("mura" or "village"). If so, that could easily be a personal or place name.
posted by GenjiandProust at 9:23 AM on April 7, 2013

It would make sense for a calligrapher to title works for their text.

The title of the print (18 in an edition of 43 if I'm reading correctly) appears to be HOMAGE. The Japanese translation of "homage" according to GTranslate is オマージュ
posted by thatdawnperson at 5:34 PM on April 7, 2013

My teacher thinks it's 素材 sozai or "raw material" or "subject matter."
posted by GenjiandProust at 1:59 PM on April 9, 2013