[laurel]

Hi John,
So, you have been to Kyoto? I used to live there for 8 years. That is a lovely city, isn't it?

As for your question, I can recognize each character of "貴道昂". The first one means noble and precious ("貴族" means aristocrats, and "貴重品" means something valuable). "道" indicates way ("道路" means road, "道理" means the way of things). The final one, "昂", indicates a strong emotion ("激昂" means wrath).

I don't, however, know what this phrase exactly means; so that I checked it by Google. It seems that 貴道昂 is the name of an antique shop in the west part of Kyoto. I guess that the bucket is a donation from that shop to the temple. You see, on other buckets Japanese names are written. In the case of the 貴道昂 bucket, it was a gift from the shop, not an individual. Maybe the antique shop owe something to that temple.

"昭和六十一年三月新調" means that bucket was renewed on March of 1986. "昭和" means the reign of the former emperor, Hirohito. It starts from 1925 and ends with his death, 1989. "三月" is March.

Well, did I answer your question successfully?