10 responses to “Is this antique door from China or Japan?”

1. 

   dijitalpano

   Kas 27, 2012 at 10:47 am

   looks inspirational and mysterious.. remembered me the song of the doors “there are things known and unknown, in between there are the doors”…

   Yanıtla
   1. 

      designmixer

      Kas 27, 2012 at 11:04 am

      what a great comment! I really liked it:) I would love to listen this song… That must be one of the reason why I like doors so much. I m always curious about what is behind? But I think what interests me the most is its mysteriousity and sparks creates my curiousty…

      Yanıtla
2. Is this antique door from China or Japan? | Home Far Away From Home

   Kas 27, 2012 at 11:12 am

   […] While I was doing my daily surfing at pinterest yesterday, I came across with the wonderful antique source […]

   Yanıtla
3. 

   baza65

   Ara 2, 2012 at 1:08 pm

   Dearest Tijen, as i mentioned today morning – my sister could lift the mysteriousity … she told me this door is from japan most likely from kyoto and most likely a womans bathplace ( sort of hammam) :)))

   Yanıtla
   1. 

      designmixer

      Ara 2, 2012 at 1:48 pm

      Alexandra u r just great!!! Thank u for searching it for me. We ve to go and find the door in Kyoto. It would also be a great idea to take the bath there!!

      Yanıtla
4. 

   Cristy Monge

   Eyl 14, 2015 at 1:03 am

   This antique door is China.
   http://www.arc-japanese-translation.com/chinese/04tidbits.html

   Yanıtla
5. 

   Daniel zuckerman

   Ara 20, 2015 at 3:05 pm

   Can someone please translate the meanings of the letters words and figures painted around this door.

   Yanıtla
6. 

   Norman Lo

   Mar 31, 2017 at 4:05 pm

   The characters are Chinese, the top three words mean “Silver Foundry”, and since it is written horizontally from left to right, that shows that the writing is modern (traditionally, horizontal Chinese writings were from right to left). Now, that is about the writing, and not necessarily the door, which could be older than the writing.

   Now, about the vertical couplet, again, traditionally we start from the right hand side, but the author used the modern way, left to right (which is a bad practice when dealing with classical things of this sort, found only in China today). So, the left, or the first line says, “Practiced in a hole”, and the right, or the second line says, “Forged in a pot”. So there we have it: the couplet is a sort of riddle, they say something about the art of silver smithing, and the top three words give us the answer: “Silver Foundry”. This sort of schema is called “dui-lian” (vertical couplet), and “heng-pi” (the horizontal “caption” or “punch line”).

   Now of course, just because all these is consistent with Chinese culture, they don’t rule out that the whole thing could still be Japanese, because as we well know, really old Classical Japanese poetry used Chinese characters almost exclusively. In the old days, Chinese is the prestigious language to use amongst Japanese literati. Chinese was very much like Latin in old Europe, the scholarly language. However, I don’t think the door is Japanese, because if the Japanese used Chinese characters, they would have written from right to left, in the traditional Chinese way. So my guess is that the door is not really antique, and it is most likely to be in China today, because people in Taiwan and Hong Kong will not write from left to right when dealing with this classical genre.

   Yanıtla
   1. 

      designmixer

      Nis 4, 2017 at 4:38 pm

      Dear Norman:
      Thank you so much for all your detailed explanation about the writing as well as the door.
      It is such deep culture which I always get amazed. I must say I m thrilled with your knowledge.
      Thanks again…

      Yanıtla
7. 

   sngholland

   Eki 6, 2017 at 12:50 pm

   銀子 means money, 室 means room, place, space, office, etc.
   Hence I would guess it can be a door of some sort of bank??

   Yanıtla