3 - it seems to be it.
here
2 - this one seems to be ninben+金 - but there is no such hanzi/kanzi. gold just looks like it, without left part:
here
1 - it is too mystic.
This is one of the ones that seems like it should be simple - it looks like 口 + 今 + 立 to me, but there’s nothing that comes close in modern kanji. A more complex version of 呤 might be an option, but nothing seems to recognise that one as a kanji. Issue with 金 as a component is that it usually appears on the left when it’s in kanji.
Don’t think it’s the person radical either, because that tends to be open at the bottom. I’m quite sure that’s 口 (seal script version), except that it’s rare for 口 to be the left-side component. Which… actually might help us narrow it down, if we don’t mind trawling through all the kanji with 口 as a radical - which is a lot, as it’s one of the six most common radicals. (Wonder if there’s any websites with a search-by-radical function that also lets us specify where in the kanji the radical occurs…)
I’m wondering if it’s worth reading through modern ryakuji lists and seeing if there’s anything similar. Like this one…
well, good guess for mouth, but it is not full-height one.
so, “gold mouth - 唫” exists, and seal form is available.
the idea about ninben was due to its full-height, as it can be seen with other symbols, where this radical exists.
so, might be this is the number 2 in the photo…
What… how did you even find that? It’s not coming up in anything I’ve checked, only 釦. Which, in seal script form, has a mouth that’s much taller, for some reason.
For other examples of kanji with a full-height mouth, 呪 in seal script looks like this: (but the etymology site doesn’t recognise it, for some reason)
According to Wiktionary, 唫 is actually a variant form of 呤, so my earlier guess was surprisingly correct. It’s also a variant of 崟.
Alright, so what we’ve got here is: 芭蕉翁松島吟並序.
(I’m gonna put this in tabs because it’s longer than I meant it to be and I don’t wanna clutter up the thread 
)
Humble Beginnings
Started with trial and error, just using various sites(I’ll link them at the end) to compare how different radicals looked until I had a good guess of what a kanji was, then I started to guess around that specific one. I got context via 蕉, which was the first one I figured out, as it popped up in Basho’s name on Jisho. Since it’s at Matsushima, that made since, so I check how the first kanji in his name looked and wouldn’t you know it matched! Figured #7 looked a bit like 島, took a gander to see if it just said Matsushima. 翁 was also figured out purely by trial and error with radicals and seal script searches.
Progress
I can only assume that 㮤 was in fact used for the 松 in Matushima based on the trends I saw in seal script during my search for answers, despite not actually finding that one specifically. @Belthazar and @Hhajinn were on the money with 呤/唫. I actually figured out 序 on accident, when I saw 野 written in seal script with the exact same style as on that stone and thought, “Oh, well obviously”.
Magical Interwebs
Now 並. This one I only got because in a desperate attempt to figure this out before my classes start (the Japanese teacher’s and my schedule are mirrored today so I wouldn’t have a chance to ask her until this afternoon), I googled some touristy stuff to see if I could somehow find a blog post or something about this specific rock, and well… https://blog.goo.ne.jp/tanbo161/e/f6ff994e0c986c1661f3ca04dc131cde
Scroll just shy of halfway down the page and you’ve got our little rock buddy! That blog gave me 並 and also confirmed the rest of what we had so far!
And with that, I feel accomplished for today and am gonna go back to my regular studies. As for translating it, I’ll leave that to someone else 
Resources
Kanji lookup by radicals- https://jisho.org/
Tenshotai look up by kanji- http://shufa.guoxuedashi.com/7BC6/
(Edit to tag @riya)
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Ah, nice work.
I’d also considered 並, but it didn’t really look like the kanji on the rock…
Hah. I too tried Googling for another photo of the rock, but I guess my search fu was weak.
Soooo… what does it mean? 
並序 is really throwing me off here, translation wise. I’m assuming it says something like “Basho’s Matsushima 吟並序”. I’m kind of assuming a lot here, since this could be some archaic compound that I don’t know, but I’d guess it’s either some writings about his Matsushima poetry, his journey to Matsushima for poetry, or the poetry itself.
Here's what the site says about the rock for ease of access:
この碑は、寛政元年(1789年)に雄島の最北端に建てられた石碑で、高さは２メートルほど。瑞巌寺の「おくのほそ道」碑と同じ松島湾の章段が刻まれている
そもそもことふりにたれと松島は扶桑第一の好風にして凡洞庭西湖を恥す東南より 海を入て江の中三里浙江の潮をたたふ島々の数を尽して欷つものは天を指臥するものは波に匍匐あるは二重にかさなり…千早振神の昔大山すみのなせる業にや造化の天工何れの人の筆をふるひ詞を尽くさむ
朝よさを誰(たが)まつしまぞ片心
と碑文の最後に芭蕉の句碑にある同じ句が添えられている。
well, considering that the whole point is about something ancient, looking into modern set of Japanese kanji is not an option. So, it was found using radical search 口.8 over hanzi.
further, it was confirmed with the etymology site to be somewhat resembling.
(from all found symbols, only 芭 does not pass the check, others may have slight difference here and there.)
yes, the guess was excellent.
(on this note, it would be much better if WK provided etymology/evolution for kanji too, but this is somewhat too much to wish.)
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Considering this is the “read the kanji” thread and not the “identify the goshuin” thread, I’d thought I’d actually try reading the kanji on these. Plus, now we’ve got some seal script reading practice under our belts…
Some of the characters are Siddham - I’ve marked those with (s). I’m hoping I’ve marked correctly, and haven’t simply just decided everything I’m struggling to read is Siddham…
One more quick note: 卄 or 廿 is 二十 for lazy people in cursive, while 卅 or 丗 is 三十
Summary
| Goshuin | ||
| Calligraphy | 奉拝 平成丗年九月十九日 (s)千手尊 ふくおか大仏 東長寺 |
|
| Seals | 密教東漸最初霊場 (s) 別格本山東長密寺印 |
|
| Goshuin | ||
| Calligraphy | 奉拝 厳島神社 平成三十年九月二十二日 |
広島護国神社 平成三十年九月二十一日 |
| Seals | 厳島？神社 | 鯉城跡鎮座 広島護国神社 |
| Goshuin | ||
| Calligraphy | 奉拝 平成卅年九月廿二日 波切不動明王 大本山大聖院 |
薬師如来像 平成三十年九月二十二日 奉拝 |
| Seals | 明治天皇行在遺跡 (s) 真言宗大本山大聖院 |
日本 三辯天 厳島辯財天 大願寺印 |
| Goshuin | ||
| Calligraphy | 平成三十年九月廿二日 奉拝 (s)福聚海 三瀧寺 |
奉拝 平成卅年九月卄二日 虚空蔵菩薩 弥山本堂 |
| Seals | 中国三十番 安藝國三瀧寺 |
弘法大師御開基 (s) 宮島弥山 |
| Goshuin | ||
| Calligraphy | 射楯兵主神社 平成三十年九月二十四日 |
祈 安寧 兵庫縣姫路 護國神社 平成三十年九月二十四日 |
| Seals | 奉拝 播磨之國総社 |
明治維新百五十年 姫路護國神社 護國神社 |
| Goshuin | ||
| Calligraphy | 奉拝 平成三十年九月二十七日 南園堂 興福寺 |
奉拝 平成三十年九月二十六日 大悲殿 蓮華王院 |
| Seals | 世界文化遺産 (s) ？？興福寺印 |
落陽十七番 蓮華王院 三十三間堂 |
| Goshuin | ||
| Calligraphy | 奉拝 氷室大神 平成卅年九月廿七日 |
奉拝 平成三十年九月二十七日 令興福力 興福寺 |
| Seals | 東山鎮守 平城氷室 氷室社務處印 |
世界文化遺産 (s) ？？興福寺印 |
| Goshuin | ||
| Calligraphy | 奉拝 金龍神社 平成三十年九月二十七日 |
奉拝 春日大社 平成三十年九月二十七日 |
| Seals | 金龍神社 | 春日大社 平成三十年 御創建千二百五十年 |
| Goshuin | ||
| Calligraphy | 奉拝 平成三十年九月二十八日 舎利殿 金閣寺 |
奉拝 平成三十年九月二十七日 華厳 東大寺 |
| Seals | 世界文化遺産 鹿苑禪寺 金閣 |
東大寺大佛殿 |
| Goshuin | ||
| Calligraphy | 奉拝 大黒天 平成三十年十月六日 |
奉拝 平成卅年十月三日 医王殿 飛騨国分寺 |
| Seals | 浅草名所七福神 米櫃 大黒天 浅草寺印 |
聖武天皇勅願寺 (s) 中部四十九 薬師霊場第四十一番 飛騨國分寺 |
| Goshuin | ||
| Calligraphy | 奉拝 明治神宮 平成三十いち年四月十日 |
|
| Seals | 皇紀二千六百七十九年 明治神宮 |
Stuff I’m still unsure of:
- Itsukushima Shrine, I can’t find an example of this with the centre seal unobscured enough to actually read it.
- For both of the Kofuku-ji ones, the first two kanji in the lower-left seal look like they should be easy, but I can’t work them out at all - the second, for example, appears to be 米＋日＋口＋已, but no such kanji exists in Japanese or Chinese, or even similar kanji with just two of those components. I’m also not too sure about my claim that the last kanji is 印 either.
I’m really not confident about the lower-left seal for Himuro Shrine.- Kinryu Shrine, I honestly think the seal with the two dragons is a kanji, but I wouldn’t have the foggiest idea of what that might be. Maybe 龍.
- Todai-ji, not completely confident that the calligraphy down the left side is 東大寺.
-
Senso-ji, can’t quite make out the second kanji in the central seal, but I suspect it’s archaic. Not completely confident what day of the month you visited either. Also,I literally just worked out that “Senso” is “Asakusa” in on’yomi, and I think it broke my brain a little bit. Hida-Kokubun-ji, not the slightest clue what the big calligraphy reads.
Thanks to @ShinobuSagi for kanji suggestions.
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This is really cool, and holy cow am i impressed.
Checking my pictures of that area,i think you’re right about it being the sixth.
Shouldn’t that be kun’yomi?
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Not if you read the sentence a different way.
Asakusa = kun’yomi, Senso = on’yomi. 
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Right, i read that as sensou + on’yomi → asakusa, in which case it’s wrong. I guess you can also see it exactly the opposite way^^
@Belthazar
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Stuff I might be able to assist with:
- Itsukushima-jinja: I think the seal just reads 厳島御社, but can’t figure out the mark in the middle.
- Himuro-jinja: lower-left seal is probably written with「處」instead of 虔 (see this one).
- Todai-ji: seems as if it only says 東寺, though I admit that wouldn’t make as much sense.
- Senso-ji: the 2nd character in the central seal is 櫃, judging by a more legible version.
- Hida-Kokubun-ji: the central calligraphy reads 医王殿 (main deity of this temple is 薬師如来, the Medicine Master Buddha)
Things that stumped me:
- Kofuku-ji: not a clue about those mixed ones, so that’ll be a treasure hunt for the rest of my week!
- Kinryu-jinja: also no idea. It looks almost like a mirrored version of 龍 …
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Oh yes, I think I can see that if I squint. That’s extremely cursive, though.
Character in the middle could potentially be Siddham, but given how cursive the others are, it’s a bit fifty-fifty.
I think I already did see that one. But aye, that’s a plausible theory. 務所 (處 = archaic 所) means “prison”, though, according to Jisho…
I’m pretty sure that what appears to be the 土 on top of the 寺 is actually the entirety of the 大. The second character has the cross, three squggles and a big curve, but other calligraphic versions of 寺 (like the one immediately to the left) just have one squggle and the big curve, though occasionally also with a cross on top.
Ah, nice - I didn’t come across that particular version. Though, the first character on that seal is clearly 米… why did I write 来?
Gah. I expected it to be the main image (it’s usually either that or the temple’s name), but the Wikipedia article just gives the main image as 薬師如来. In fact, it’s actually the main image plus the temple’s sango, though only the article’s introductory line gives the sango as 医王 - the infobox (which I was actually reading) gives it as 醫王…
Welp, I’ma upload these corrections.
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Aye, but there’s actually another character in front of it, and 社務所 means shrine office 
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The shrine prison, where they keep offenders until they’ve written enough goshuin to earn their penance.
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how good should be knowledge of kanji to recognize this on sight?
oh well, some 避難訓練 ? might help, yeah…
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