Hey hi, so... take this with a giant grain of salt, since I know pretty much *nothing* about japan or the language, but I think the 伊 on the box means italy? And, while I didn’t find that exact design, it may be an “art of chokin” kind of box? Do an image search on like, “chokin etched black music box”. I think those look kind of similar — gold on the edges and no keyhole? Not sure about the tune :( I hope I didn’t lead you to a dead end 😅 I hope you find out more about the box!!!
Thank you so much for your ask! It’s nice to have so many people helping me on my music box mystery, so thank you everyone! I did know that it was an “art of chokin” design! So you’re 100% right on that! I’ve also found similar ones with birds and other Japanese shrines and temples and these are the closest to mine, design wise, which are (please correct me if I’m wrong) the Arakura Sengen Shrine and the Ninnaji Temple:
Both “art of chokin” style, like mine, however the temple on my music box is the Kinkaku-ji Temple, which I have yet to see another “art of chokin” music box like it.
(This is my music box for anyone who hasn’t seen my original post)
Also someone found out the name of the tune! It’s called “六段の調べ (Rokudan no Shirabe)” or the “Music of Six Steps” (I’ve also seen it called “Melody in/of Six Movments”) so thank you again to tumbler user @blue-moon-sky for letting me know that and solving the biggest mystery!
Then the “伊” character mystery! This one I’m not 100% sure if it’s solved, but you most definitely put me on the right track so again, thank you! For those of you who might not be able to tell in the picture, the character “伊” is seen on the art of the box right there on the bottom, under the temple. Apparently “伊” is used in both the Chinese and Japanese language, but I’m no linguist and I can barely speak my own language so take what I say with a grain of salt as well, this is just what I got from a little research so feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
In Chinese the “伊” character mean “he; she; that” but it’s not used in that sense in the Japanese language. It’s used in proper nouns like names of people and places! Here’s a copy and paste from the website that gave me the most information:
“Some common proper nouns that has 伊 are:
伊藤 "Itoh" (common Japanese family name)
伊賀 "Iga" (a place name famous as a home of ninja)
And I’m just going to take a shot in the dark (so this is just pure speculation) but I’m going to guess the meaning of “伊” on the box is the name of the artist who made it, or at the very least the person who did the metalwork on the box :)
And I think that covers all of the mysteries of my little goodwill find, thank you everyone who pointed me in the right direction (like you anon!) and those who just straight up gave me the answer! If anyone just happens to have more information for me, or wants to correct me on my research, please let me know! I’m always eager to learn more!
