Can anyone help translate the characters on this glass?
 

I'm new to this forum, so forgive me for failing to post the image of the drinking glass clearly.

Here is a web link to the image:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/197/photo2jl.jpg/[/IMG]


Thanks in advance!

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Where is it from actually? :o

I don't understand your question, but I'll try to answer.

The glass is part of a set of drinking glasses that were acquired in Tokyo in the 1950s by my parents and recently bequeathed to me.

Thanks!
I don't think I could help you anyways though, but some background information is always useful to get your answers :)

Thank you for your advice. I hope someone in this forum can help solve the mystery!

Cheers!!

I believe its 福, but other users who is more used to reading calligraphy can confirm

If it is 福, then there is no direct translation, it can mean a bunch of thing: Happiness, Luck, Wealth, Good Health..

Thank you!!

Godwine is correct, this does look like 福 in cursive script, however, (if it indeed is 福) the form itself is incorrect. There should not be a vertical line in the middle of that character. A short one can be written, and then it indicates a left hand side strokes of 口 and　田, but the line in that character goes from very top and it is perpendicular to the character base. In short, it is wrong.

Below, ink rubbing from a work by 智永 (Zhì Yǒng), from the Sui dynasty period （隋朝, 581 - 619）. As you can see there is no vertical line in the middle.



There is a form in clerical script, where the 口 and　田 are combined with a vertical line on the left hand side, however, it is not showing on any of the cursive forms in the dictionary. I think someone based this on either seal script or clerical script. Seal script forms of 福 are quite popular. In those, both sides of 口 and　田 are often merged with vertical lines. If pictures are needed to understand this better, I will post them up.

Could it be written in simplified chinese? I don't know anything about calligraphy, sorry...

I`ve asked two people today, and both said it was a highly stylized 雅.
I don`t know anything about calligraphy, but one of them was a 書道 teacher and the other studied classical Japanese... So I am willing to accept their interpretations.

This would explain the vertical line, however i doubt this is 雅. As much as the left hand side radical fits, the bottom-right side of that cursive hand of 隹 on the glass does not make any sense.

Edit: an idea just entered my brain. What if this is a combination of two cursive forms. (福 and 雅).
Bottom-right curve has evident features of 福, and both left-hand side radicals of both kanji have nearly identical cursive form.

All I can say is WOW! Is this way beyond my expectations!!

Thanks to all of you who have responded/contributed.

Please let me know if further images would help answer some of these cursive questions.

If these glasses actually come from Japan, it is very difficult for me to believe that the kanji is 福 because it is not such a "popular" kanji among us at all. It is rarely the kanji we would select to write/carve/inscribe on products either for personal or public use. Many Japanese would even have a fairly negative image about the kanji for one of its meanings "monetary success". The Japanese would hide it if they had a desire to make much money. We would not "display" that sort of a desire. Among the Chinese, however, it is an extremely popular character. Go to any Chinese-owned restaurant and you will see it written someplace.

雅 is a popular kanji meaning "elegance" among the Japanese. It carries absolutely no negative meanings for the Japanese mind.

As to what the kanji in question looks like, all you could receive would be personal opinions. So, I decided to provide some fact-based information.