Chinese or Japanese?

[Allan H.]

I would really appreciate some help with this. It is approximately the size of a U.S. dime. Can anyone translate this for me?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Allan

[gunnerde]

My Google Translate app is confounded by much of the text, but the symbology in the middle seems to translate to "Member" and the two symbols on the far right (日本) mean Japan. I don't have exact translations, but it seems that much of the rest of the text suggests that this is a membership pin for some sort of club, group, or organization, possibly pertaining to a university in Japan.

 

I know this isn't super specific, but I hope this helps somewhat!

[Mr. Bushido]

Hi, this item is written in Japanese.

However, since the kanji are pre-WW2 style, many Japanese will not be able to read them.

That's probably why the translation app got confused.

 

●Central 【會員】
It means "member".

 

●Upper side 【社團法人】
It means "general incorporated association".

 

●Lower side 【大日本易道會廣島縣支部】
It means "Hiroshima branch, one of the branches of the society for researching Iching Tarot in the Empire of Japan''.

 

 

Your interpretation was mostly correct, but it seems that it was a private research group, not a university.

[vostoktrading]

Doesn't 大日本 mean Dai Nippon or "Great Japan..."?

Written right to left makes it pre 1945?

Just thinking of the way sailor tallies are written.

 

[Mr. Bushido]

3 hours ago, vostoktrading said:

Doesn't 大日本 mean Dai Nippon or "Great Japan..."?

Written right to left makes it pre 1945?

Just thinking of the way sailor tallies are written.

 

That's right, "大日本" means the Japanese Empire.

 

It is a certain convention that these are placed at the beginning of the names of various organizations.

They only mean something like "...of Japan".

 

By the way, there was no horizontal writing in Japanese until after WW2.

The only way to write Japanese at that time was vertical writing.
In that case, start writing vertically from the top right corner of the paper, and when you reach the bottom edge of the paper, start writing again from the top left corner.

If the paper is a long rectangle, you can only write one character, and each time you write a new line.
That's why the characters appear to be written from right to left.

 

In Japan, horizontal writing in its truest sense was used after WW2.
This was influenced by English.
However, since IJN was influenced by foreign countries, this type of notation was sometimes used even before WW2.

[vostoktrading]

Thank you, I didn't know that.