Can you read these Japanese characters for me?

March 14, 2022 7:28 AM

My latest translation request - I still haven't learned to read Japanese!

I have two volumes, published around 1900, of pictures of carriages. You can see pictures here. I'm looking mainly for publisher, date, and place, but any information you could provide would be most appreciated. Thank you!

posted by Joan Rivers of Babylon to Writing & Language (5 answers total)

This is tough. The very first character on the title page is an obscure character that I was completely unable to look up. Might be a variant of 故, but who knows? I did discover Glyphwiki, which is fascinating, and claims to have 800,000 characters, but not that one. My guess is that the first four characters on the title page arranged 2x2 say something like "handy series."

The title itself also includes a variant character that took me a while to look up, used in a word that I only have a vague understanding of. It winds up being something like "Palanquins and carts explained, with drawings." The two smaller characters at the end indicate which volume in the series this is (in your list of photos, the first one is first, the second is second, but it's using the slightly arcane 甲 and 乙 instead of something more common like 上 and 下)

The copyright page shows that this was printed 20 Sept 1900. The editor's name is 小杉榅邨 (Kosugi Osson), although given names for men in Japanese are notoriously irregular, and I've never heard Osson as a given name. Publisher is 吉川半七 (Yoshikawa Hanshichi); who is located in Tokyo. The address is a little perplexing, but it seems to have been in what was then Kyobashi ward, which is now Chuo ward. The subdivision of the ward is called 南傳馬町 (Minami Denma-cho), now known as 伝馬町 (Denma-cho). The whole address is 東京橋区南傳馬町一丁目二番地.

The copyright page also gives the names of the people who compiled the book cut the plates, and printed it. No one is named as author per se.
posted by adamrice at 9:33 AM on March 14, 2022 [6 favorites]

Response by poster: adamrice, thank you for that very generous answer! It's a great help.
posted by Joan Rivers of Babylon at 10:22 AM on March 14, 2022

I don't read Japanese, but these are old kanji and they are VERY similar to Chinese. So I can offer some guesses.

Try posting them on Reddit in /r/translator and someone can help you there.

This appears to be a reprint of some sort of a book about a wagon / carriage.

Date given is 33rd year of Meiji, which makes it about 1899.

I believe, but unsure if this is the same book: https://books.google.com/books?id=QB8l_70iepQC&source=gbs_book_other_versions
posted by kschang at 3:41 PM on March 14, 2022

The editor's name is 小杉榅邨 (Kosugi Osson),

Perhaps the editor is Kosugi Sugimura? The years line up, and he was considered a national scholar based on the linked Wiki.
posted by lesser weasel at 7:12 PM on March 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

Excellent find, lesser weasel.
posted by adamrice at 7:16 PM on March 14, 2022