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These two seal characters appear on a Japanese tsuba and I am guessing they refer to the Dragon and the Ho-O bird (Phoenix) that also appear there, does anyone have a more definite idea of what they mean? Dragon is 'Long' and Phoenix is 'Feng' but those Chinese kanji bear no resemblance to those depicted here. The complication is that they may not be pure Chinese in meaning as they were rendered by a Japanese artist, in Japan, and Japanese usage of Chnese kanji may be somewhat colloquially skewed! Anyone know of a good book or online database where such characters may be identified? Many thanks to all for looking.
Steve

Please post pictures of the complete piece.

Actually I just got the answer, working from identifiable radicals within the two characters and checking against Koop & Inada Chapter 7, (Numerical Categories). The first kanji is 'RIO', the second is 'YO'. As expected each has several widely differing meanings but, within colloquial traditional numerical categories (applied to subject matter) there can only be one intended meaning when in combination: RIO means 'the two', and YO is an expression of the male principle; hence this is a description of what is depicted on the tsuba - two elemental beings, the Ho-O and the Dragon. I have put the two kanji below but cannot post a picture of the item itself as it belongs to a major institution and they own copyright. Thanks to everyone for looking.
Steve.

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