Hinomaru Yosegaki for review, very stylized writing

[Paul G]

Hello everyone,
Here is a Hinomaru Yosegaki that added to my collection recently. It looks pretty basic to my learning eyes. Its made from heavy weight silk with gold foil corner tabs. I can read the BuunChouKyuu, "everlasing fortune in battle" across the top. The writing is very stylized, and hard to read it appears. It also looks like some "grass writing" form of cursive on the left side. Can anyone make out a receivers name? or a presentor? Is the "grass style" writing a name or as more commonly seen a poem? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank You,

PG-

[Paul G]

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[GHP]

10 October, 1945

昭和二十年十月十日
October 10, 1945

スッロサー。ウェイン君
Surrosaa. Uein-kun
Mr. Surrosah, Wayne
[no telling how the last name is spelled in English]

Far left border:
南無妙法蓮華経
Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō

This is a Buddhist chant used by Nichiren Buddhists. The chant proclaims, "Hail to the Mystic Law of the Lotus Text" and is in praise to the Lotus Sutra.
南無 Namu is a transliteration of the Sanscrit word for praise: Namas.

The chant is also used by the break-away group Nichiren Shōshū, and probably best known by the lay organization Sokka Gakkai who chant it exclusively (not the entire sutra, only the title).


--Guy

[GHP]

And I guess he married a Japanese lady. At the 8 o'clock position we see:

花嫁来江
Hana-yome Kurue*

* [or is it "Kie", "Raie", or .....???]



花嫁来江

Hana-yome Kurue
Bride Kurue


--Guy

[Paul G]

Thanks Guy! Thats very interesting. I was thinking most of it may be very hard to read with that style of writing. Thanks for your efforts!

PG-

[Nick Komiya]

Are you now collecting post war souvenir flags intentionally? Surely you saw it was dated 1945? Like the Clark Gable flag, I have to question legitimacy with Movie Star and Sumo Wrestler names again. The slogan on top I cannot make out, but it is not about fortunes in battle, but something about flowers and the moon.　
What you have in common with the other flag is the Sumo Wrestler Futabayama http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futabayama_Sadaji　The movie star you need to check out is Setsuko Hara http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setsuko_Hara　Those are the two names I recognize at a glance, but there might be others. I indicated the location of those two signatures on your flag and also provided a real Hara signature photo below.

Somehow photos don't upload here

[Nick Komiya]

Sorry, the site is not accepting photos all of a sudden and the links above to Wiki are also not showing correct

[Paul G]

Hi Nick, LOL! No I am not intentionally collecting post war flags. I took a chance on this one because it came with some other items and was cheap. To my very untrained eyes, I thought I saw the fortunes in battle slogan, but in a VERY stylized form, wrong on my part! Thanks for the additional information on this one. I will end up keeping it, as its a somewhat interesting flag in its own right. Looks like an occupation soldier ended up marrying a japanese woman and had a flag made up as a souvenir?? I wonder if thats the case, as it seems pretty quick after the end of the war. Thanks again Nick for your links and insight provided!

PG-

[Nick Komiya]

The two celebrity names simply raises questions is only what I said. They may even be real, I'm no handwritting expert. But I personally do not think that he married a Japanese girl. Though I can see why Guy got that theory, a wife signing in that manner is just too un-Japanese to me. She would normally just sign her first name only. I would rather think that the name is for some kind of comedian. And not even a word congratulating the newly weds among the well-wishers also does not do much to support that theory.

[GHP]

... But I personally do not think that he married a Japanese girl. Though I can see why Guy got that theory, a wife signing in that manner is just too un-Japanese to me. She would normally just sign her first name only. I would rather think that the name is for some kind of comedian. And not even a word congratulating the newly weds among the well-wishers also does not do much to support that theory.

Maybe I need to add a disclaimer tag-line to my signature? Something like:
"Unless explicitly stated otherwise, I am only attempting to translate Japanese words, not authenticate the item."

D'ya think that would work?

--Guy