質問: There are a few characters handwritten in a miniature umbrella acquired in Hakone mountain in the mid 60’s that I don't understand. Could you please help me with those characters? I’ve transliterated most of the writing and it is shown below the image of the miniature umbrella. In the image, each line is sectioned in alphabetic order and then shown in type where「・」indicates an unknown character. !enter image description here The full resolution image can be viewed here () (a)箱根山 (A)箱根の山は (B)天下の岐 (C)・谷間ヲ・ならず (D)万丈の山干・の谷 (E)前に・びえ (F)雲りえに友ら (G)雲は山・めぐり (H)霧は谷そとざす (I)昼なそ暗さ (J)杉の並木 (K)着物の小径は (L)莟・らか (M)一天関に当るや (N)万天ヲ・くな・ (O)天下に・する (P)剛毅のヲののふ (Q)大刀・に足・がけ (R)・・の岩根 (S)踏みならす (T)斯くこそありしか (U)往時のヲののふ On the other hand, the umbrella’s package shown below has one unknown character also indicated in the type by the symbol「・」。 !enter image description here (a)番傘 (b)天下の・ Dictionaries referenced. The following dictionaries have handwritten capabilities, search by kanji within words or by radicals. 1. Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten DS (Nintendo DS, ジーニアス Jīniasu) 2. Apple dictionary (OS X, Mavericks) 3. 4. 5.
回答: This is a famous song 箱根八里【はこねはちり】 by Rentaro Taki. (English translation) This song was written before 現代仮名遣い was introduced, and its original lyrics are full of kanjis which even native Japanese (including myself) can't read any more. It seems your umbrella has simplified some of the kanjis, used hiragana, and even introduced some easy kanjis, but basically this Wikipedia article will help you understand. * B: 物ならず * F: 支う (not 友ら) * U: 往時のもののふ And the bottommost character in the package is "険" in modern Japanese, and means "steep (mountain)". This kanji is not exactly 「険」 nor 「嶮」, but such mixture can happen. (I really don't know whether this kanji is correct or wrong.)