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Hello all!

I have recently purchased a painting at a local thrift store and am trying to decipher the characters. I think one of then is SEN and that is about all I could find after about 4 hours of googling. I am assuming there is an artists signature, a title, and I am not sure what the red seals are for. Can any of your read this?
On a side note I would love to learn how to read these things...any suggestions on how to teach yourself that skill?

I'll treat the painting as Chinese, although its imagery also is well rooted in Japanese and Korean art and literature.

It should be noted at the outset that while it is respectably done, there is nothing particularly unique about this painting. It is the kind of wall art that was mass-produced for popular consumption, including by tourists and others who visited Asia during the late 20th century. Vietnam-era military personnel on leave in places like Hong Kong, Tokyo and Bangkok were prime customers.

The four-character title of the picture near its upper left corner may be rendered in Mandarin pinyin as "Song Shen He Xing" (松身鶴性), literally "The lifetime of a pine, and the spirit of a crane". Since the evergreen pine symbolizes eternal youth, and the Manchurian crane is the tireless conveyance of Daoist Longevity God Shoulao, the title seems to express a blessing appropriate for all who have attained or aspire to reach old age.

The red seal next to the title reads down in Mandarin as "Song He Shan" (松鶴山), literally "Pine and Crane Mountain", though possibly a name, with "Song" being the surname. I found a reference to "Song He Shan" with reference a Qing dynasty collection of Chinese poetry, which avenue would require your further research to determine its pertinence to this painting.

In the lower right corner, the Bold black characters and red seal both read as "Dong Quan" (東泉), literally "Eastern Fountainhead", but here likely a name, with "Dong" being the Chinese surname and the two characters together forming the Japanese surname "Tousen" or the Japanese place name "Higashizumi".

FYI, Chinese characters are at the roots of written Japanese and Korean, but the pronunciation can be vastly different in the latter two languages and across the hundreds of Chinese dialects as well. If you want to learn to read, you might inquire of major universities near where you live, as some of them may have courses, possibly including online classes.

Best regards,

Bill H.

Agree with Bill and admire the time he puts into his replies. The only point from me is that studying Chinese/Japanese won't quickly get you to the level of knowledge you seek if your primary interest is reading inscriptions. For that you are going to have to be self-directed. Start by LOOKING at lots of examples. If you are near a big city go to auctions to see the inscriptions on things up close. Otherwise look through old auction catalogs for good photos and the transcription of inscriptions and seals. Also look for major museum publications and scholarly works in the painting field that reproduce images of and translate inscriptions. At a minimum this will get you used to figuring out what is a signature, what is a title, what is a poetic inscription, which are the artist's seals, which are collectors', a few of the basic formulas and terms that appear on inscriptions from different times, etc.

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