Please help, is this writing Japanese?

Hi, can someone confirm my suspicion that this witing on thjs image is Japanese?

If not, which alphabet is it please?

Thank you for taking the time to have a look!

The small text is to blurry and the large incomplete.
Could be Chinese or Japanese and depending how old the picture is also Korean or even Vietnamese.

The clothes look very Chinese.

looks Chinese to me, and based on the only character clear enough for me to read, possibly a clothing retailer.

Is there any text on the back of the postcard?

Quote: "Jupiter"​Is there any text on the back of the postcard?

​its a postcard sized photograph. The back is plain.

Quote: "jimpop"​
​
​Hi, can someone confirm my suspicion that this witing on thjs image is Japanese?
​
​If not, which alphabet is it please?
​
​Thank you for taking the time to have a look!

​It's Chinese. The first four words should be 元年吉服，which roughly translates to first-year lucky clothes. I recognise the words 女　and　寒 as well. I'm guessing that it's a tailor shop.

This should be takin during late-Qing Dynasty / Republic period as you can observe the hair style of the people and what they wearing.

By the way the Chinese characters should be __ 吉 洋 服

洋服 Means western style clothes, the previous two characters are normally the name of the shop.

Chris

thank you for your expertise.

This photo was part of an estate clearance I aquored, the family had merchant navy connections so lots of ephemera from Shanghai, HK, Singapore etc etc.

There was also an item of coin interest, It was a memo slip from a bank in Hong Kong 1947, about them returning a 5c peice to the guy. I found it pretty interesting!