Can anyone read Japanese?

[Atlantia]

Originally Posted by migueldiaz

Hi Gene,

Until a Japanese or Chinese member of the forum can give us a direct response, we can make do with the feedback below I just got from a Filipino friend living in Canada, whose uncle is Japanese, and which same friend has several Taiwanese friends [whew!].

Would just like to qualify that given the several stages the info has to go through before it has gotten to me, some transmission errors might have been unwittingly introduced. But just the same, according to my good Filipino friend, and as culled from his multinational sources:

According to the Taiwanese, the first four characters are Chinese: 1. Heaven; 2. Below [or Under]; 3. Wood; and 4. Village.

The middle characters refer to the name of the village which they surmised to be “Imba.” The bird by the way is what they call “tsuru” [crane].

According to the Japanese [uncle], indeed the text is a combination of Japanese and ancient Chinese characters.

As for the last two characters in the bottom, it is supposed to be a combination of two words, which the Japanese said refers to "weight" and "justice", or perhaps "strong justice" then.

As for the rest of the Japanese characters, it's supposed to mean "Number one all over the world".

So stringing together the mixture of Japanese and Chinese text, we get something like -- "Number One All Over the World, Heaven Below/Under, Wood, Imbamura (Imba Vilage), Strong Justice".

I don't know myself what would be sense of that. But that's how ordinary contemporary Taiwanese and Japanese would translate the text.

[Where's my monkeys that falleth from the trees?! ]

Let's see if we can have some more inputs from other sources, from within the forum or otherwise.

Ah, well thank you again!
These mirrors although Japanese are heavy in chinese influence. I think the Crane/bamboo/plum blossom etc are all symbols of prosperity and longevity in Chinese tradition, but I didn't realise the characters were a mixture! Thats really interesting.
I believe 'First under the heavens' was something put on the finest old mirrors (16thC) I think it was heavily copied onto later mirrors and don't for a second think mine will turn out to be a special one (if for no toher reason than its square and not the usual circular). I didn't think the inscription seemed very long, so I wasn't expecting anything more than the basic 'who, what, where, and when' inscription.
So the thought that it has a legend which claims it is 'number one in all the world, in heaven or below!' Tickles me a lot!!
There should be a clan name (for the maker) and region, so perhaps the character which represents 'wood' could be a clan name? then Imba Village, 'Strong Justice' is a bit of a puzzle?

I believe that as the sword was considered the essence of the Samurai, the bronze mirror was once considered the same of a Japanese lady and were handed down from generation to generation.

Many Thanks
Gene