Does anyone recognise these marks?

I wonder if anybody can help identifying these similar marks on two plates that I found when clearing out my father's house after his death.

I know absolutely nothing about these plates. These marks are intruiging, as they appear both on the front and the back of both plates, but on the back the maker has also added the letter H. I would dearly llike to know if these indicate a signature, or an inscription, and if so in what language and it's meaning.

The plates are quite thick and clearly hand painted, and along the rims of both plates there are white marks, as if they have been damaged. Although I do not believe that this is the case, as the glaze that covers the front of the plate also covers these marks. The plates are pretty, with geometric (flower?) designs in colours blue, green and yellow. 

I did not know my father very well, and I don't know how he came by them, but I know that he travelled in  China and Africa.