Is this authentic Chinese porcelain?

[blin19]

I am looking for any information on this tea set that my great-grandmother passed on to us. Apparently she got it from her father who was part of the German troops that fought in China during the boxer rebellion, which means he would have brought it home to Germany around 1900.

I have tried to do some of my own research with the resources that are available online but it's been pretty tough since I know absolutely nothing about porcelain. I am doubting whether the marks on the bottom are even real Chinese characters or a German forgers attempt at creating something that resembles a Chinese character. Of course I don't even know which way around it's supposed to be read so it's tough to compare it to pictures online.

The file sizes are too big to upload so I've added the pictures to an imgur album: imgur.com/a/QMRSJGv

Thanks!

[peterp]

This is not Chinese. Moving this to Japanese porcelain.
If there is a mark on the bottom, please post a picture of that too.

[blin19]

Interesting. I never even considered it could be Japanese. Here is the mark on the bottom.

[Stan]

Hi Blin, the mark I believe is side ways and reads Zao, usually you see Dai Nippon meaning Great Japan, Im thinking this is 1st quarter of the 20th century and could be a little later in my opinion, even if it dose not read Zao it is more than likely a makers mark and the decoration is from that period.