3 sign text from a t-shirt (possibly Traditional Chinese)

[sammelkorn]

Hello friends, 

 

I was brought back a t-shirt from Japan, from a Kendama convention.

(Kendama is a Japanese skill toy, do check it out if you don't know it yet, I love this thing)

My friend, who gave it to me, said he was told that the shirt says "lucky man", but I really need to know for sure before I wear it. (My friend is, like me, Austrian and doesn't know any Asian languages either).

 

The shirt has two lines of text, one apparently clearly Japanese, one possibly Chinese (according to friends' friends on Facebook).

 

From what I've gathered, the Japanese line (front of the t-shirt) reads 普通型剣玉, which means "regular shaped kendama".

 

The back however, bears three signs which I'm not even sure which language they are. Possibly Traditional Chinese? 

I think I have recognised some traditional radicals on my Wikipedia quest to figuring out the writing yesterday.

 

I would be so glad if someone could shed some light on this (meaning, language).

 

Thanks already, 

 

David

[陳德聰]

The back is also Japanese but we can probably still help out with some kanji here.

 

It’s 縁起者

[Publius]

I would like to point out that 縁起者 is pronounced engimon (えんぎもん) and involves a (deliberate) misuse of kanji based on 縁起物 (えんぎもの, engimono, 'lucky charm').

While written as 物 it's unambiguously an inanimate object, the change from 物 to 者 gives it a meaning closer to 'mascot'. Engimon often takes the shape of an animal or a cartoon character.

 

By the way, the original meaning of 型 is 'mould' therefore 'shape', but as a suffix it usually just means 'type, style, model'.

[sammelkorn]

This was very helpful, I am really grateful for you taking the time to spell out your thoughts.

The detail about the deliberate misuse of kanji was a fascinating detail for me.

 

Honestly, without a forum like this, I don't know if I would have found the translation anytime soon.

 

Take care and thanks again!