OK: it's important to know that those characters could be in Korean, Chinese or Japanese - the writing systems are all based on the same symbols, which are phonetically different in each language but mean more-or-less the same thing (with some potentially embarrassing exceptions). That square is usually a mouth of some kind (hungry or speaking or opening/doorway) and the plus-sign is usually a numeral 10 (which can mean "plenty").
If I look on zhongwen.com for the two symbols together (square+plus)+square, I get... well, for one thing, I think it's upside down. (plus+square) is gu in Chinese, which means "told through 10 mouths" which means ancient, traditional, all that stuff. It's also a last name. ...That one character, if it's right-side up, could also be (sideways T+square), which is zhan, or "divine" (cracked tortoise shell+mouth). I can't find either of those characters next to the mouth/door square, though.
(Upside down characters are common ornaments on doors at New Year, but I've never heard of them being carved in stone.)
Where's the symbol from? |
on the american amazon website - but does anyone know anywhere uk-based that would have it?