# Vintage Japanese Scissor. Kanji?



## Mr.Magnus (Jun 28, 2014)

Hi guys. I picked up a vintage scissor a few days ago for 2$ (got it from a old woman that has a passed away husband, he was a sharperner for surgical instruments and much more back in the days). The action is great, cutting better then most other modern scissor i have home right now witch i thought was funny. Not sure what this model is used for but i seen this type of scissors but with smaler cutting edges, used for bonsai trees. Dose anyone here know what this model is used for and even better can read the kanji?


----------



## pkjames (Jun 28, 2014)

i am no way a scissors expert but the kanji (or chinese characters) closely resemble to "&#29579;&#40635;&#23376;" which is a chinese scissors brand originated in 1651 from northern china. It was a famous brand prior to modern china and gradually being driven out of business by cheap made in china stuff. 

so depending on the time of manufacturing, it could be one of the best scissors in its period (if it was a genuine &#29579;&#40635;&#23376;,not counterfeit&#65289; . I'd say anything made prior to 1980 would be great. 

You can read more here (with the help of google translate)
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/王麻子


----------



## Mr.Magnus (Jun 28, 2014)

Ah chinese! Thank you a ton James! ill haf to look it up more, translated to Wang Mazi. This thing feels very solid and cuts very nice.


----------



## osakajoe (Jul 10, 2014)

The Japanese scissors you are thinking of for banzai trees and herbs are call ueki scissors. They do look very similar but I have no knowledge of wang mazi.


----------



## erikz (Jul 10, 2014)

Banzai trees  Is that a spelling error or are Bonsai also called Banzai trees?


----------



## osakajoe (Jul 10, 2014)

Typo my bad. I've been living in Japan now for a few years and forget my English sometimes


----------

