Poem on Kozuka?

[Kurikata]

Hi, 

 

I like kozuka with poems or any other description on their back. I found this one recently and was wondering the text meaning. Can someone help me ?

 

Thank you

 

[SteveM]

大津絵にも囗囗ハ

いかに囗囗囗

 

Ōtsue ni mo ~

Ikani ~

 

Even in Ōtsue ---

 

I can't pick out the other bits. The reference is to a kind of folk art called "Ōtsue”, which you are probably already aware of.  

[Stephen]

Maybe Nobody will come along

[Kurikata]

I got this transcription from a Japanese expert here in Europe:

 

大津絵尓、毛練しハいか尓、者せとう齋

 

which could be translated as : This is not depicted in the Otsu-e repertoire, it is a pity

 

Please feel free to comment.

[Nobody]

2 hours ago, Kurikata said:

I got this transcription from a Japanese expert here in Europe:

 

大津絵尓、毛練しハいか尓、者せとう齋

 

which could be translated as : This is not depicted in the Otsu-e repertoire, it is a pity

 

Please feel free to comment.

 

Thanks to your post, I found the following page.

Lot 582 - A RARE HAMANO SCHOOL SHIBUICHI KOZUKA WITH A

 

To be presice, the last character should be 齊 (or 斉).

 

[Bugyotsuji]

So what is the depiction?

[Kurikata]

I have tried Chatgpt to decypher this poem and the result is really amazing:

I clearly identified the Japanese characters engraved on the metal object. Here is a transcription and explanation:

Transcription (romanji)

Hōrai no
yama no hotori no
sumiregusa
yoso no hanayori
utsukushikeri

Explanation in English

It's a waka (a classic Japanese poem of 31 syllables in 5-7-5-7-7).
• Hōrai (蓬莱): a legendary mountain in Chinese and Japanese mythology, associated with immortality and paradise.
• yama no hotori (山のほとり): at the foot of the mountain.
• sumiregusa (すみれ草): violets (flowers).
• yoso no hana yori (よその花より): more than other flowers.
• utsukushikeri (美しけり): they are beautiful.

👉 The overall meaning of the poem:
"The violets that grow at the foot of Mount Hōrai are more beautiful than all other flowers."

This type of poem combines nature and spiritual symbolism (here, the mythical Mount Hōrai → paradise, and the violet → simplicity and beauty).

 

[Bugyotsuji]

Nice idea!

(ChatGPT could be totally wrong, of course.)

[Katsujinken]

I’ve found ChatGPT does a great job with jargon filled printed nihonto material in Japanese, but I’ve never tried asking it to OCR cursive poetry…

[Markus]

Readind romanji instead of romaji (rōmaji), its already a red flag.

 

https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/301873/why-is-romaji-so-frequently-spelt-as-romanji