A paleographic puzzle
Here is a detail from the title page of Futari komuso 二人こむそう ("Two komusō), dated to 1812, by Santō Kyōden 山東京伝 (writer) and Utagawa Kunisada 歌川国貞 (illustrator).
So this is the title, 二人こむそう, with the "komusō" part arranged into the shape of an actual komusō, right? The only problem is, I can't quite work out how the arrangement works. The そ is pretty easy to see. Above it there's こ, in a variant form derived from 古 (or maybe it is 古, man'yōgana style — the distinction isn't really germane). But the む and the う elude me.
Theories:
- The line with a twist on the right is a distended む (the modern kana). But in that case, what is the う? An ウ with the line at the top extending down through the crossbar, turned upside-down?
- The bottom left-hand corner is an ん, that is, the variant for む based on 无. But in that case, again, where is う?
- The right and bottom are all part of an upside-down mirror-image variant む based on 無. But the mirror-image thing makes this seem unlikely, and, once more, where is う?
Hope me, readers.
timotarou:
My best guess: http://www.timotarou.com/img/blog/100722_01.jpg