asian character

auntiesarahjayne

SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
Joined
Jun 20, 2005
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Milwaukee, WI
Does anyone recognize this language?
Customer swears it is Japanese, but signature runs left to right.
signature.jpg
 
" Customer swears it is Japanese "

Then it must be so. If you find out that it is not so, are you going to correct your customer?
Take the order, get a deposit, frame the picture, then tell you, customer, how lucky they are to have such a fine piece of art. Don't forget to collect the balance owed.

If I remember right, that is called a 'Chop'
 
quite honestly she wondered on the age of the piece. so I probably will not tell her that it is actually Chinese.
 
I don't know which language it is, but I think the writing generally is written in a column with the red chop mark at the bottom of the column.
 
I have no clue, but what beautiful characters they are.

I also thought they’d usually run top to bottom, but that might be just how I have always seen them.
What is the full image? Just curious!
 
That is really unusual - I have never seen a horizontal signature like that. As Bruce mentioned, the chop is usually at the the bottom of the characters.

Not that I am by any means an expert on Asian art or anything, but it looks to be an Asian version of what I would call a "Sunday painter." Maybe someone just beginning their career as an artist, or an apprentice? It just does not have the usual grace or style that I am used to seeing.
 
I sent it to an artist friend from Japan, and she couldn't make heads or tails of it, so perhaps it's more of a doodle? Or it could be an old grass script from China. Have sent the image to a friend who translates Chinese, so will see what he says.
 
The houses, the grass, the waves, all those dots?

Maybe there is an Asian Bob Ross out there and this is one of his students!

:cool:
 
I like JRB's take on this one. It doesn't matter where it came from if the customer likes it. Make it prettier and take their money.

It's not very good sumi-e work. Clumsy and over-worked. My guess is that it was done by a student or a western artist trying to imitate the ancient art. Even the border papers are a bit over done. Soooo, I would generally keep my mouth shut when dealing with the customer, and deflect if asked if I liked it.
 
I know a wee bit of Chinese, so I can say that I ALMOST recognize a couple of the characters, but they look really "off". The side-to-side aspect is odd, like others mentioned, but they're definitely oriented top to bottom correctly (the entire thing isn't sideways). It's in running hand (basically cursive) which makes it harder to read. I would say it's unlikely to be Japanese mostly because it's a LOT more flowy than is typical, but in that note it's also more flowy than I usually see in Chinese script...I'd say overall it's not a great example of either the artwork or the calligraphy for China or Japan, and might be a knockoff/practice piece by a student, like others have said.
 
I will just throw this out there because it is not my area of expertise but......... A few years ago I was involved with martial arts and part of the syllabus was a study of the Chinese Taoist philosophy. The basis of this was an ancient text called the "Tao Te Ching" and various translations are still available.

Our Shihan repeatedly quoted the opening lines in Chinese because they are the key to the whole thing and they became familiar to me so, one day I quoted them to a Chinese customer of mine. He (very politely) said that it made no sense to him at all. Apparently, comparing modern Chinese with the ancient written or spoken language is like comparing Shakespearean English with the modern version.

So, it is quite possible that the text on this painting is correctly rendered in the "old" form and equally possible that it was just copied from who knows where to make the picture look more oriental.:shrug:
 
I will just throw this out there because it is not my area of expertise but......... A few years ago I was involved with martial arts and part of the syllabus was a study of the Chinese Taoist philosophy. The basis of this was an ancient text called the "Tao Te Ching" and various translations are still available.

Our Shihan repeatedly quoted the opening lines in Chinese because they are the key to the whole thing and they became familiar to me so, one day I quoted them to a Chinese customer of mine. He (very politely) said that it made no sense to him at all. Apparently, comparing modern Chinese with the ancient written or spoken language is like comparing Shakespearean English with the modern version.

So, it is quite possible that the text on this painting is correctly rendered in the "old" form and equally possible that it was just copied from who knows where to make the picture look more oriental.:shrug:

When I once sent my Chinese translator friend a photo of a sarong, he wrote back saying he couldn't read it. Said it was from a very old script, but couldn't be read now. When I sent him a photo of some text my niece wanted tattooed on her ankle, thankfully, he could read it.
 
When I once sent my Chinese translator friend a photo of a sarong, he wrote back saying he couldn't read it. Said it was from a very old script, but couldn't be read now. When I sent him a photo of some text my niece wanted tattooed on her ankle, thankfully, he could read it.

A very wise move on your niece's part. There are plenty of stories of tattooed Chinese characters which do not mean what the wearer thought.

 
My Chinese translator friend says this, "....The Japanese also write Chinese characters in calligraphic style, so sometimes it's hard to tell. I think these have a Japanese flavor (the sharp chiseled look of the stroke-ends)." Since neither he nor our Japanese artist friend (who is from Japan) can read it, perhaps it's a bit of an invention? It also makes me wonder if there are 'dialects' of writing in some languages. If so, maybe this is from a certain place.
 
I'm thinking along the lines of an invention on the part of the "artist".
As pretty much all fo us can't read it, most would think it is an honest oriental painting.
 
My wife is from Shanghai and is fluent in several Chinese languages. The artist of this piece is Chinese and hit is his name that is the calligraphy on the piece shown.
It is a Chinese name written in Chinese. No doubt about it.

Side bar,
Please, anyone planning on getting a tattoo in any language other than their native language should definitely get a real translation first. My wife has shown me many a young girls shoulder blade with asian characters tattooed on that mean frying pan, Toilet, Door, etc. Always check first.
 
Mystery solved!! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
 
thank you very much! I appreciate all your help as well as the additional thread started.
 
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