Translation from Japanese

[chirp]

Can anyone help with a translation of this? It was written on the back of a family photo showing three people, man, woman and child. Possibly the Kondo family. The child might be Totaro Kondo who was born in 1887. I don't even know which way up this should be - my apologies if I have got this wrong!!
Chirp

[XPhile2868]

As Japanese is written top to bottom and right to left, I think you've got it the right way around as the "legs" of the letters are at the bottom. I don't speak the language personally, though.


Stephen

[Plummiegirl]

If no-one comes up trumps by tomorrow, contact the Japanese Embassy they are always very helpful.

Had a g/g/aunt who was a teacher in Japan & they put me on the right track to trace her over there, she came back to UK before WW2 having spent many happy years there.

[chirp]

Thank you Stephen - that was my feeling too!

Thank you too Plummiegirl - yes I will do this if I have no luck on Rootschat. You never know though, someone just might be able to help.

I do appreciate your replies.
Chirp

[jorose]

You have it up the right way!  (If this post turns up with lots of little boxes, my apologies, I wanted to give you the kanji for the names so that you could paste them into other posts if you wanted).

The (first) right-most column is the date in the old style:
Meiji era, 39th year, first month.
Meiji era started in 1868 so Meiji 39 I think is 1906.

The next lines are names and ages. Problem with names in kanji - they can usually be read multiple ways.
近藤 (last name, could be read "Kondo", either with a short or long final vowel)　長吉 (first name, "Choukitchi", "Choukitsu", "Nagayoshi" are all possible readings, it's a man's name) - aged 44
third daughter, ヂョウ (Zhou? - this name is not Japanese, ヂョウ seems to be the usual way of writing the Chinese "zhou"), aged 9
It's not entirely clear to me, the first character could be デ which would make it "Dyou" - either way this is out of the ordinary!
second daughter, 玉子 (possibly Tamako or Tokuko), aged 18

If this family's occupation was landscape gardening then the family business still exists in Ashikawa (Toguchi prefecture), and they have a website.

[chirp]

Thank you Jorose. What you have given me is confirmation of much of the (admittedly little) information I have on the family of my Japanese relative Totaro Kondo.  I have on file a translation of his birth certificate and also some letters from Japan plus a copy of his  marriage certificate. I now know that the photo shows my uncle's father and two sisters. In the 1930s the younger sister (who appears as Jo in the translated letters) wrote to her brother several times; they had lost contact in the late 1890s when he ran away from home to join a circus! Jo tells him that their sister Tamako had died a few years earlier. I do not know why their mother does not appear on the photo as she was alive until at least the 1930s. The father's name was indeed Chokichi but he was not a landscape gardener he was a confectioner. I don't think the name Kondo is unusual in Japan. What you say about the date makes sense. On the translation of the birth certificate it states that Totaro was born in the"20 year of Meiji = May 22 1887" . Thank you again for your help - I am very pleased to have these details.
Chirp

[jorose]

Yes, it's not uncommon but I thought I'd throw that out just in case.

If you have a scan of the other side of the photograph I'd love to see it.

[chirp]

Jorose I am having difficulty uploading this photo as the file is too large. I am working on it!
Chirp

[chirp]

At 200 dpi I don't know how well this going to work, here we go....