Japanese? flute

[squeezebox99]

oh
The characters are not written there to size - nor is this picture to scale - this is just an indication of what the characters look like - sort of.

[bildio]

As a Chinese character, the one on the left is "silver", & the one on the right is not identifiable as a Chinese character. May not be copied clearly.

[Nanohedron]

As a Chinese character, the one on the left is "silver", & the one on the right is not identifiable as a Chinese character. May not be copied clearly.

Or it could be Japanese, then. Also, there are a few Japanese-only kanji that were created apart from what was borrowed from the Chinese.

Man. Just had another look, and that second one's not making any sense at all.

[squeezebox99]

According to my Japanese friend, one word meant Circle (the first character - the one on the headstock) - the next words meant Silver (as was said) and the last word was a character that meant something about rolling or wrapping. I will try to get clear shots of the writing - but it's really small - I don't know if it could be done without magnification I don't have on my digital..

[talasiga]

What about Roman flutes?

[I.D.10-t]

Of course I can't make a peep out of it - but my flute playing friend played it this morning and it's pitched in E. Not my cup of tea at all.

Seems like a strange key (to me any ways). I would have thought that it would have been Eb or Bb. Does the key seal well and does the flute respond well to standard baroque cross fingering? (not sure what kind of information your friend gave you)

[squeezebox99]

The flute does not seal well at all. The joints are wrapped with string that is coming loose. I'm going to repair that.
The seal seems pretty good though - I mean the flute plays well. I was hoping the pitch would go down too - but I haven't worked on that part of the instrument yet.

[mrosenlof]

It's possible that the third character is 'obi' in Japanese which means belt or band as in silver bands.

Here's the character 帯 if you have the appropriate font installed.

I'll take a more wild guess at the headjoint one and agree with your friend that it means circle. Like this, but enclosed in a square box: 員 (It's uncommon, I couldn't find a way to get the character I wanted) It could be something as simple as 'circular embouchure' or something to that effect?

[Lowden]

The character on the left look like old kanji character for Yen (Japanese currency), the middle one is Gin (silver), but I can't identify the one on the right.

Yen Gin sounds like a silver coin, but I don't know why these characters are written.

http://sapporo.cool.ne.jp/kosen/1yen_a.htm

I don't think this flute is made in Japan, though.

[Tchie]

the answer is, it is not in Japanese because I can read first 2 (員　銀) letters but not the third one. (first=number, the person with responsibility, 2nd=silver) is not chinese letter used in Japan today. However, it looks like anicien letter for 　膏; no meaning special in Japanese.

Or the third one is ancient letter for 管　means "tube" so the 2nd + 3rd combine together to mean silver tube. (thus silver flute)

well, ask rather chinese people...

[Tchie]

膏: definition by my Japanese dico, means the grease, used for the term medical.

[mukade]

From an old dictionary of Chinese medicine called the honzoukoumoku in Japanese:

銀膏
錫又は銀と水銀との合金
= Amalgam of tin(or silver)and mercury

However, I don't think that third character is correct.
We need a clearer picture or copy.

As other people have mentioned the, first character is the traditional way of writing the yuan or yen currencies.



Mukade

[squeezebox99]

Sold the flute to Cork - so it's his mystery now! Should be at his place middle of next week. Maybe he'll post more pictures that are better. Margaret