translation please
 

Would someone kindly assist me by translating what is written on this wooden case?
domo in advance

That's Chinese. But the first character appears to be 花 to me.

花(something with 它)前(something with 子)
＿＿＿＿他硯＿

nah, the beginning is 花籠 means flower basket. I will work on that it's challanging, i ll possibly write it by hand because i dont have the Chinese font on this pc. It is also not 前 in my opinion, as right hand side of the 月 is not written that way in 草書 . Last ４ are 梨地硯箱. It would mean that this may be a case for 硯　すずり, a stone for making ink for calligraphy. 梨地　なしじ is a lacquering technique used for covering objects with silver / golden powder or flakes.
花籠 at the begining may be a name (4 kanji total) and smaller characters, besides flower basket has nothing to do with 硯.

You know better than I, ryuurui. I can't read grass script for the life of me! ;) I can barely read 1500 kanji in Mincho!

nah, the beginning is 花籠 means flower basket. I will work on that it's challanging, i ll possibly write it by hand because i dont have the Chinese font on this pc. It is also not 前 in my opinion, as right hand side of the 月 is not written that way in 草書 . Last 3 are 地硯箱. It would mean that this may be a case for 硯　すずり, a stone for making ink for calligraphy. 花籠 at the beg. may be a name (4 kanji total) and smaller characters, besides flower basket has nothing to do with 硯. It's a name of the maker, but why is it on the right side. In calligraphy all sigs. are at a left side, or the bottom. Perhaps with crafts is different, but this calligraphy isn't very good anyway, looks more like a note made in mixture of　行書 and 草書.

Oh shit sorry I double posted, just added some stuff. This is tough, some kanji I can find in the calligraphy dictionary but I haven't got a clue what they mean. By the way it isn't grass script. That is a common mistake. 草 also means rough, it's a rough script as it was applied naturally to write every day memos. Hope you don't mind me pointing that out ;-). If I can;t break this puzzle I ll ask my calligraphy master.

Trust me Kyle, Japanese can;t read running script, it really does not matter how many kanji one knows. It's all down to rules of 草書. And it's a jungle lol.


Ok, here it goes. I cannot read one character, and cant understand meaning of two. There are the two that follow 花籠 and I am 99% positive it's a name. 3rd one reads ぼう i ll try to find a meaning of it. 4th one is a my educated guess, judging from the 草書.

地由 makes no sense but I reckon combined with the first kanji it can be name of the place. The swipe to the right in 用 is incorrect, or my knowledge is not enough. Right side is misleading but could land somewhere near 痛. It is also possible it's a mistake. I can;t make anything out of it.

all in all, it's a wooden case, i reckon made of Paulownia tree (as majority of the wooden cases for scrolls, ink and calligraphy supplies), that contains or rather contained a suzuri, possibly lacquered and covered with gold flakes, made or belonging to a person whose name starts with 花籠

Thanks for the pointers. Also, all the little pieces of kanji I did know but didn't help finding a full kanji you came up with something similar (e.g., the 子-esque radical in the first line), so that makes me feel a bit better about my kanji recognition at this point in my studies.

And I knew 草 also meant "rough" because I just learned the vocab 草稿 ("rough draft" for the beginner and intermediate learners out there) a couple days ago! I just assumed 草書 was named that way because the strokes are smooth and pretty like grass blowing/bending in the wind. I have learned something new!

Thanks.

I was surprised to hear the script is Chinese. I had hoped it would identify the maker of the contents. I guess I was in error by not showing the contents in my post. As you can see in my image, it holds a finely decorated suzuribako or writing supplies and ink stone box. I have always been enamoured by the arts of Japan, especially lacquer and metal work.
Your translation seems right on track and I would love to hear your opinion of the maker's name. This is my first post here and your kind assist is most welcome. I will be away from my computer for 2 days so I will not be able to respond again before then.

Hmm, could that be Japanese art? I must admit that I can't really tell the difference between much of Japanese and Chinese art, despite repeated viewings of Mulan and 蛸と海女.

ah man I thought exactly like you, flowing as grass on the wind. But yeah, it's a running script, rough or cursive. Grass script is the same mistake as rice paper. Paper for calligraphy is not rice paper, Rice paper is used for wrapping food. It's just something we got used to. :)