12

Can you please help me with recognizing this line in old Japanese handwriting?

old Japanese handwriting

As I suppose, this is:

? やき ? っすれ ? の二


but it's most likely that I am wrong

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1 Answers1

18

It's a famous book called ぎやどぺかどる, a translation of Guía de Pecadores (or "The Sinner's Guide") by Jesuit mission in Japan.

It reads:

きやとへかとる 巻の二 (voicing marks unused)
Guia do Pecador - Book 2 (title in Medieval Portuguese)

What makes it hard to read is hentaigana, now obsolete historic alternate kana, used in the line as:

きや
or
きや登遍可 (hentaigana in original kanji forms)


EDIT:
The shape of the eighth letter, which I read 其, seems rather peculiar, that more resembles hentaigana 春 or 寿 (both for す). There's a possibility that it's a typesetting error (note that the border between kana and cursive style kanji is fuzzy), or meant to be hentaigana 楚 for そ.

Sorry, of course it was 巻 :)

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