Look what I found in the wild—it's one of the ateji country names we covered a while back!
I’ve redacted the parts that might give it away. (Or at least I think I have—is this a very recognizable mountain range? Not my area of expertise.)
To be clear, the country name is only the first four characters: 伊太利亜. The last two, 市場 [いちば], mean market or marketplace.
So, can you read this? Click through to check!
伊太利亜 (or often just 伊太利) is read イタリア. Yes, it's Italy! And all four characters are common in ateji, so pay particular attention to the on-yomi!
伊 is read かれ or イ; it's actually the source of katakana イ. Its original meaning is “that one,” but today it’s used mostly in proper nouns or as an abbreviation for Italy.
太 is read ふと (ふと.い, ふと.る), タイ, or タ (which is its most common ateji reading). It means thick, fat, plump, wide, big around, etc. Don't confuse it with 犬 dog; mnemonic here!
利 is read き.く or リ; it's actually the source of katakana リ. It means profit, advantage, or benefit.
亜 is read つ.ぐ or ア. Its original meaning is rank next/come after, but today, it usually means Asia (亜細亜; usually アジア). However, it also shows up in all kinds of country ateji! The most common ones are 亜米利加 [アメリカ] America/USA (abbrev.: 米) and 露西亜 [ロシア] Russia (abbrev.: 露). It might also be worth remembering 亜鉛 [あえん] zinc.
Türkiye is extremely rich in vascular plants, and I really want to return there someday. My last trip there was full of beautiful memories; one of my favourites is this Kurdish boy took me to see the beautiful Iris iberica outside his village
A cool name today, very uncommon but made of common kanji. 伊比 is read Ibi or Ihi. (Walking by, "Do you think it's ee-hee, like Michael Jackson?"—"I think probably yeah.") It's also cool because both characters originated a katakana character and are used to represent a country.
伊 is a character I'm surprised we haven't done in depth! It can be read kare or i, and it's the source of katakana イ i. Its original meaning was "that one," but being so simple to write made it perfect for ateji,* and it came to mean Italy (originally 伊太利, today イタリア), which is what it usually means today. You also see it often in Japanese surnames and place names.
比 is read kura.beru (比べる to compare) or hi. It's the source of katakana ヒ hi. It means compare, race, or ratio, and it's also used as ateji to refer to the Philippines (though its nowhere near as common as 伊 for Italy).