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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;manymore, post: 782319, member: 17118&quot;]It&#039;s definitely Japanese.</p><p><br /></p><p>On the obverse side (four character side), the <i>kanji</i> at the top means &quot;drunk&quot; as in &quot;intoxicated&quot;.&nbsp; The Japanese write the right side of this character differently from the Chinese so we can confirm that this piece is Japanese and not Chinese.</p><p><br /></p><p>The bottom <i>kanji</i> means &quot;bamboo&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>The character on the right means &quot;fortune&quot;, &quot;property&quot;, &quot;possessions&quot;, etc.</p><p><br /></p><p>The character on the left means &quot;cloth&quot;.&nbsp; Interestingly enough, this character can also refer to a very ancient form of Chinese money known as <a href="http://primaltrek.com/spade.html#spade_money" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://primaltrek.com/spade.html#spade_money" rel="nofollow">spade money</a>.&nbsp; However, I do not think the character has this alternative meaning in Japanese.</p><p><br /></p><p>Assuming the inscription is read in the traditional order (top, bottom, right, left), the meaning would be something like &quot;drunken bamboo, fortune and cloth&quot; which probably is not very enlightening to most of us who do not understand the cultural environment in which it was produced.</p><p><br /></p><p>Regarding the reverse side, the <i>kanji</i> at the top means &quot;seed&quot;.&nbsp; It can also mean &quot;type&quot; or &quot;kind&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>The character at the bottom means &quot;money&quot; so the translation is probably &quot;seed money&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>Unfortunately, I do not collect Japanese coins and do not have a good understanding of Japanese culture.&nbsp; Therefore, I cannot tell you what this piece actually is.&nbsp; It could be almost anything -- a coin, token, charm, gambling piece, game counter, souvenir from a samurai film, video game or business conference, etc.</p><p><br /></p><p>There are historical references to &quot;drunken bamboo&quot;, however.&nbsp; There was a &quot;drunken bamboo&quot; festival in ancient China and, after a quick search online, I saw a Japanese reference to poetry and the &quot;Old Gentleman of the Drunken Bamboo&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>Hopefully, someone with a better knowledge of Japanese culture can now better identify this piece and place it in its proper cultural context.</p><p><br /></p><p>Gary[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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