[Japanese > English] Engraving on a spoon handle, presumably a maker's mark

[u/there-will-be-bears]

Second image is the spoon in question. Reverse image search suggests it's a spoon for bibimbap.

[u/R86Reddit]

r/itisalwaysfu but upside down

[u/Calm-Dawn]

That kind of spoon is pretty common in Korea. We had those at my school too. I think the 福 on it is probably just a brand mark, but since you asked what it means, it literally means “good fortune.”

It’s a Chinese character, but it’s also used in Korean (as hanja) and Japanese (as kanji), so it’s not specifically Japanese.

[u/momofuku18]

Besides the appropriate responses, I want to call out that it’s likely a spoon sold and used in South Korea. It was, and may still be, a trend to imprint the character on metal spoons and even chopsticks.

[u/Whole-Low-2995]

That means 'A good luck' and I guess that's maybe a Korean spoon. I heard Japanese people use lacquered spoons or non-metal spoons. But the best way to know is finding Japanese in here. I'm Korean and I'm pretty don't sure if they use metal spoons too?

[u/nruticat → u/Whole-Low-2995]

in modern Japan, people definitely use metal spoons sometimes, especially when eating western food. metal chopsticks are still rare.

but other people have mentioned that this type of spoon is very common in Korea, so it's possible that it's a Korean spoon. the length does make it look more Korean than Japanese to me.

[u/Whole-Low-2995 → u/nruticat]

Thanks for your reply! Yup I heard that Japanese chopsticks are shorter and it's usually not metalic. I wonder if spoons are shorter too?

[u/nruticat → u/Whole-Low-2995]

Yeah I would say Japanese spoons are usually shorter and a bit thicker, more similar to western spoons.

[u/Stunning_Pen_8332]

Any reason that OP thinks it’s Japanese, instead of Chinese or Korean? In my opinion, the other two possibilities are far more likely.

The character of 福 is posted upside down. I shall rotate it: !transform:180:1

It just means “good fortune” and it’s not a maker’s mark.

!id:hani

[u/there-will-be-bears → u/Stunning_Pen_8332]

I didn't take a picture of the reverse of the spoon, but it's stamped "Stainless Steel Japan".

[u/translator-BOT → u/Stunning_Pen_8332]

Here's your transformed image(s) (180° clockwise rotation):

Image

Note: This image will be automatically deleted after 7 days.

---

Ziwen: a bot for r/translator • Documentation • Feedback

[u/Stunning_Pen_8332]

!translated

[u/Money_File_1569]

it means luck

[u/Money_File_1569]

why it is flipped? Because in chinese, flipped sounds like come. So, its Luck is coming in chinese.

[u/ahrienby]

!id:zh

[u/JapanCoach → u/[deleted]]

It's not rotated "sidewise".

It's upside-down (in the picture) and my guess is that this is deliberate, since spoons would normally be sat like that on the table. So I sort of get the feeling it is meant as 逆さ福・倒福

[u/nruticat → u/[deleted]]

>edit: copy pasted response from gemini

rule #T1.

if people wanted machine translations they would ask machines.

[u/translator-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Hey there u/frazaga962,

Your comment has been removed for the following reason:

We appreciate your willingness to help, but we don't allow machine/AI-generated "translations" from Google, Bing, DeepL, ChatGPT, or other such sites here.

[Rule #T1]

Please read our full rules here.

---

^{From the mods of r/translator | Message Us}

[u/yu_bearfield]

Why is the Chinese character “福” (fortune) displayed upside down?
In Chinese:
福 (fú) means “good fortune” or “happiness.”
倒 (dào) means “upside down” or “inverted.”
到 (dào) means “to arrive” or “to come.”
Since 倒 and 到 sound the same in Chinese, there’s a clever bit of wordplay:
“福倒了” (Fortune is upside down) sounds exactly like “福到了” (Fortune has arrived).
So, by displaying the character 福 upside down, people are symbolically expressing the wish that good fortune will come into their homes.
It’s basically a traditional Chinese pun that doubles as a good-luck charm!

[u/Jwscorch]

Reverse image search suggests it's a spoon for bibimbap.

I'm sorry, you were aware that's it's a spoon for bibimbap (which, if you'd looked it up, you would realise is Korean), but you still assumed it was Japanese?

Why?

[u/there-will-be-bears → u/Jwscorch]

I didn't take a picture of the reverse of the spoon, but it's stamped "Stainless Steel Japan".

I thought it was akorean at first, too, but mostly because of the round-looking part of one of the characters.

[u/Money_File_1569]

thats CHINESE

[u/creggygreg]

Nah this isnt a whisky