Japanese bowls

These Japanese bowls have quite a history. Our friend Tony had a beautiful shop selling Japanese antiques and objets d’art in Bangalow, and we bought the bowls there as a gift for our friends Marg and Marie, in 1994. About ten years later, when we helped M and M move into a nursing home, we brought the bowls home with us. M and M died seven years ago and we use their bowls regularly.
 
I wonder what, if anything, the hand painted characters say.