Please forgive my ignorance as I don't know whether this writing is Chinese, Japanese, or what have you. I also have no idea if it's upside-down or sideways! This thing has been with me for roughly six years now. We found it in an (almost) empty storage locker. I don't know anything about its origin. It looks to be very intricately hand-painted. Can anyone tell me what the mark on the bottom says? I have never seen anything like this before. I know it's an ashtray, but other than that I don't know what to call it. I'm considering selling it on Ebay as kind of a unique item (perhaps an antique? I saw a WWII-era film with Japanese soldiers using an ashtray with a similar shape, but it was white and not decorated like this one.) Without further ado, here [+]