Can anyone read what this says in Japanese?

Nope, its all Greek to me.

Maybe it says “Strike”

I don’t know, but that looks awesome! Where did you find those?

Seems to be a family or school name. ”王” means “King,” but could also be the name of a family or school.

@Spargett: Very unique and interesting! Take them with you the next time you go for Sushi and have someone there decipher it for you! Great find!

My Chinese girlfriend says it has something to do w/ a government official—kind of like a diploma one would receive after passing gov’t tests to prove that you have, in fact, passed the test and are now certified to practice your occupation. If you received it, it proved the gov’t hired you and that you had passed all the necessary tests, exams, etc…
(If you’re wondering about the relationship between Chinese & Japanese, they use [basically] the same alphabet (Chinese characters). In fact, my gf is doubtful as to whether the sign is Japanese and not actually Chinese. Actually, she says it is “definitely” Chinese, not Japanese).

definitely Chinese. Being a South Korean, we learn Chinese…but I absolutely suck at it…which is why I turned to English…it looks like a post that you stick at the ground to me :)

@tb1570 the character in the top right corner is not “king” it’s something else. The top horizontal line is slanted. :)

@frigate1985 哦，谢谢！我的汉语真不太好！

uhhh…tb1570? although I know Chinese characters, I do not happen to be ABLE to use it…so I have no idea what yer talking about lol you know..at school, learning some basic stuff :)

although the last word from the front, means, “not, no”, “big”

I have no idea about the ones horizontally at the top. The two large ones vertically:

I think the first one can mean sentence, literature, style, art, decoration, figures, plan.

The second one is beginning, former time, or origin.

Taken together, it could mean something else. I’m not sure. Sorry can’t be of more help.