help with samurai belt buckle!

[diamondjim]

Found this dude at the purple thong site...I just can't figure it out.

This belt buckle was found with other US military buttons, so possibly something brought back from overseas. It depicts a samurai on horseback with chinese or japanese inscription. I tried to highlight the characters, pretty hard to see in the pics.

Any thoughts? A translation of the inscription would be hugely helpfull I think, any guesses?

 

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[Montana Jim]

Roughly translated it says: "Warrior of the Purple Thong with the gross rip in front"


Really though, can't figure the charactors... been trying for 20 minutes... I wish they could be a little clearer... there are small details that would be helpful that cannot be seen.

 

[diamondjim]

some high dpi scans instead of digital pics

 

[diamondjim]

2nd pair

 

[DCMatt]

It says "seishin" which means spirit or soul or mind.

It is "old style" Japanese (reads right to left) so it is pre- WWII but may be much earlier. It could be a more modern knock-off, however, you don't see the old style much after the war.

Suteki na! Wonderful piece!

DCMatt

 

[Jadish]

You're right, It loosely translates as Clean or pure spirit. But the guy on the horse no way looks like a samurai - the way he is holding the spear is too weird. Probably a modern piece

Jadish

 

[Yang Hao]

It's chinese is 精神。jing shen which means vigour, vitality, drive. The word is often used in everyday chinese. for example 我有精神 wo you jingshen which means I have drive or I have energy. However if you add the character 病 bing to it 精神病 jing shen bing it means to have a mental disorder. I'd guess it's chinese and bought at a souvenir shop or souvenir street vendor.