Meiji era enamelled spoon

[Baka Gaijin]

An opinion would be welcome on this unusual Arts & Crafts enamelled spoon by the Sanju Workshop in Yokohama c.1880

Is it the place name?

If so, why Katakana?

カ  Ka

メ  Me

井 sei

?

[Bugyotsuji]

Malcolm, if you can put up with some ramblings for a moment, I can offer a potential line of enquiry/inquiry.

 

One of the fashionable words in Yokohama in early Meiji was カメ.  This was based on Westerners walking their dogs on the Bund and shouting "Ca'mere!!!". It sounded like the Japanese Kame, and indeed there was an amusing craze/fashion in Yokohama for people to name their dogs 'Kame'.  The third character is 丼 don, suggesting that the sign may be for a restaurant called 'Kame Don', not that they actually served turtle but that the name was still amusing in 1880, and in Katakana to indicate a foreign word. 

 

There are weaknesses to this explanation, however. I have not made an effort to locate such a restaurant by a bridge on an old map. Why is the sign rounded at the ends, giving the impression of an artist's seal? And what does the last Katakana character ト indicate? I started looking but soon gave up, finding possible *leads but nothing solid.

 

Scruffle this up and chuck it in the bin as you please.

Offered in true humility,

Your fiend, etc.

 

*The sound Donto ドント　(丼ト?) conjures up the sound of the Donto Matsuri, Kyushu-ben 'donto' after which some eateries are named, and katakana for the English word 'don't', rendered as 'donto'. Some kind of clever word play here?

OK, I promise not to dig this hole any deeper! 

[Baka Gaijin]

A brilliant and atmospheric reply Old Bean!!!

Curiously, the Sanju Workshop also used a stylised turtle seal on more grander pieces.

Thank you

[Bugyotsuji]

https://studyenglish.at.webry.info/201505/article_4.html

 

Your answers might lie here. 亀戸天神社 Kameido Tenjinsha.

(See link with Claude Monet.)

 

[Baka Gaijin]

Again you come up with the goods!!!!!!

 

Here's our chap at his best:

 

https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/21840/lot/302/

 

One cannot but think what manner of items would he have worked upon had he been active pre - Meiji

 

[Bugyotsuji]

“Maker’s 🐢 turtle” !!!