From reader "Jan I.":
"The picture is just a random encounter during a shopping afternoon - a cap with some random looking letters .. I wonder if they carry any meaning at all? Cheers."
The first character looks like a botched "female".
女 = female, woman, girl; feminine
The second one can be either "dog" or "to protect" depends on it is a dot or stroke in the center.
戌 = eleventh sign of Chinese zodiac (The Dog, 7pm-9pm, west-northwest, September)
戍 = defend borders, guard frontiers
The last one is correct and it means "tiger"
寅 = third sign of Chinese zodiac (The Tiger, 3am-5am, east-northeast, January); to respect, reverence; respectfully
I always wonder what the characters on the random choinoiserie/japonesque items I buy mean. I've decided that they should say "stupid american buy this!" or something to that effect. Unfortunately they are most likely nothing at all *sigh*.
ReplyDeleteI actually had a t-shirt once that a japanese friend (whom I trust) bought for me. He was happy to inform me that he got it in new york and that it read "I am a stupid gajin". I wore it with pride. ;)
ReplyDelete馬鹿外人?
ReplyDeletesweet.
馬 = horse
鹿 = deer
外 = outside, foreign
人 = person
I have been enjoying this site for some time now and felt I could possibly lend a comment to this particular "design".
ReplyDeletePerhaps it is trying to say, "Bitch Kitty".
A female dog is a bitch. Nothing crazy there. Perhaps there is an actual kanji for Bitch, but I wouldn't know what it is. As for the "Kitty" part, that's a bit of a stretch from Tiger, but a tiger is a cat and almost all female cats are referred to as kitties. There are a lot of uses for Bitch Kitty from band names, car decals, cartoon characters, etc. Just a thought.
Probably tried to say "Tiger Bitch"
ReplyDelete...though, admittedly, I have no idea why...