Japanese? Hanging Scrolls

Is there somewhere online that can help you learn to identify Chinese/Japanese signatures?

I've tried looking at several places, like the link below, but its rare that I can even make out the same characters in the examples given. I guess its more familiarity with characters in varying handwritings, much like English, especially cursive..
http://www.ukiyo-e.se/signatur.html

The only reason I know one of these is *possibly* Japanese is because the god Daikokuten.
But then again, I dont know, it could be a Chinese artist creating a piece depicting Daikokuten

The piece with Daikokuten is absent a chop (learned that word today ), what does that mean?
It's done in thread/silk.

Google translator wouldn't pick up the signature, so I traced it, tried it again, and it came up with Hanaka in Japanese and Floral in Chinese.




I did the same thing with the tiger scroll and came back with the number 5

 

I've not seen bone used for the dowel......

that's all I got....

 

#1 is Japanese, as you thought.
#2 looks Chinese to me.

Tiger No 5 from the Beijing Zoo. Not to be confused with Chanel No 5, which smells much nicer.

 

The bone is just the knobs, they are capped over a wooden dowel.. I popped one off yesterday.
Definitely bone, not ivory

 

Agree, it has the veins of bone. I don't think komo was questioning the material though.

 

Oh no, I didn't think that, just throwing the fact out there for anyone who came across this