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Mar 15, 2011
 Japanese names
by: Anonymous

>ALSO I HAVE BEEN TOLD MY A JAPANESE FRIEND THAT >THE CHARACTERS SAY THIS WAS MADE IN "COTTON VALLEY"

The meaning of the name is irrelevant. Usually, in western languages we don't translate Japanese names, either of persons or places. We don't call Tokyo "eastern capital" or Osaka "big slope", by the meaning of their names. The same way we don't call the family name Nakamura as "central village", which is what the name means.
A large part of the Japanese family names have translated content relating to nature, and also use "village", "valley", "mountain", etc. as their second character. The problem is that many family names can be either place names or family names. You cannot determine which it is in this specific case, unless you know for sure there is such a place in the vicinity of the manufactory or kiln. I do not know if there is such a place name in Japan.

Unlike Chinese, with Japanese porcelain the name on the mark is a family or shop name (workshop), that is it says by whom the decoration was painted. Japanese shops often use the founder's family name. And, I'm sure that you misunderstood your friend's meaning. The third character just means "made", "produced". Japanese does not use "in" or "by", so you cannot deduct from these characters if it means where it was made, or by whom. It just happens that with porcelain the painter's name is often used instead of the manufacturer or kiln.

For example, if you have the kiln name of Kutani (which would mean "nine valleys"), often only Kutani (the name itself) without the "made" is used.
It appear that in Japan the same kiln has or had many decorators living in the vicinity of the kiln, and they signed with their own name or shop name, not the kiln name.

Peter
Mar 15, 2011
 ASIAN TEA SET
by: JON

ALSO I HAVE BEEN TOLD MY A JAPANESE FRIEND THAT THE CHARACTERS SAY THIS WAS MADE IN "COTTON VALLEY"
Mar 15, 2011
 ASIAN TEA SET
by: JON

THANK YOU PETER. THAT IS A GREAT START. I HAVE 4 RED AND GOLD CUPS AND 4 RED AND BLACK CUPS. THIS SET LOOKS REALLY OLD ALMOST LIKE POTTERY BUT SO PAPER THIN YOU CAN PRACTICLY SEE THROUGH IT.
Mar 14, 2011
 Japanese item
by: peter

Hi Jon,
This is Japanese. The mark says who made/painted it, but I cannot tell you the reading in roman characters because this Japanese name has more than one reading. Even the Japanese get the reading wrong sometimes...

I would try doing image searches on Google for antique Japanese porcelain. As far as I know there is one manufacturer that is/was frequently using the type of red porcelain you have. You could try Kutani first.

Hope this helps.

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