Help With Mark On Seto Sometsuke Bowl

[kardinalisimo]

Any idea what the left column reads? If not wrong the right one is Dai Nipon.
Thanks

[Stan]

Hi Kardinalisimo, I could not find anything in my Japanese books with these marks, sorry.

[kardinalisimo]

Thanks for trying Stan.
At least does the right side read Dai Nipon?
Any idea if that is Seto ware?

[peterp]

Yes, it reads Dainippon.
Unfortunately, the first character on the left is simplified in a way that it is difficult to know what name it is.
Do you not know what "Setomono" (seto ware) means???
It is one of the Japanese terms for porcelain.

[Stan]

The way it is written dates it about 1868 to 1912, could it be Kato Masukichi of Seto, " Kawamoto Masukichi the 2nd ?

[peterp]

??The way it is written dates it about 1868 to 1912, could it be Kato Masukichi of Seto, " Kawamoto Masukichi the 2nd ?
The character would be written ??, a male personal name. Could also be read Masuyoshi. I find this reading on English websites, but not on Japanese ones. On the other hand, Japanese names are often written with the same characters, but pronounced differently, especially personal names.
I have looked at some marks written by this Kato, and they were carefully executed, more so than average Japanese marks. But with the character shown on the bottom of the bowl, two strokes would be missing. A number of other characters could also be abbreviated that way.  So, he would be from the town of Seto?


PS: "Setomono" is nowadays often used as a common name for "porcelain", as already mentioned. It is therefore better to be careful with its use. It does not necessarily have to be from the place of the same name, in order to be called that way.

[Stan]

Hi Peter, I looked up Seto on gotheborg's web site and found marks similar to the ones on this bowl, it was there that they are saying it is Kawamoto Masukichi, however the top mark on their's is different.