japanese jinbaori hat

Hello,

Can someone help to translate the writing on the inside of this hat?
thanks in advance
regards

William Wiltshire

wiltshirew@aol.com

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Tomochika ?

It is "CHOuSHUu (something) JUu TOMOCHIKA SAKU".
Choshu is a province.
The (something) would be a smaller place name, such as a town. I couldn't find the kanji in the dictionary.
"JUu" means "resident".
Tomochika is one possible reading of the name. Another is Tomonori.
"Saku" means "made (by)".

Signatures on kodogu (fittings, including tsuba) are very difficult to interpret - the artists often used unusual readings.
Check a tsuba book for "Tomo-something", and you may find it.

Pete

Tsuba

Thank you
William Wiltshire

Missing kanji is Hagi

Hi,

The missing kanji is the capital castle town of 萩 Hagi, so the right column reads 長州萩住 Choshu Hagi Ju (resident of Hagi in Choshu).

FWIW this was a very easy kanji to find by radical (http://jisho.org/kanji/radicals/). More difficult was figuring out that Hagi was a town (I should have read your post more carefully)!

Hagi

Ah, you're right! I had looked under the correct radical (140), but I missed it somehow...

Pete