Japanese Brass Spoon; Seems Hand-Carved, Acid-etched Signature?

The floor of its bowl looks as if the resist was applied overall except for the apple (pear, persimmon?) outline; the signature is 'proud' to the fruit. Most of the tool marks, which lead me to the assumption of hand-carving, aren't well shown in the pics...my apology.
I believe it was cast, then finished in a variety of ways including draw-filing or a similar hand-work. Aside from the etching, I can find no mark. I'm hoping that mark is more than the name of the maker; the fruit shape may be an indicator of its design-purpose, but that's just a guess. A small but appealing detail is the care shown in the area where the bowl joins the stem...very finely defined!
It's ~7 1/4" long, the shallow bowl is ~1 1/2" wide X ~2" long; it weighs 31.2 grams.
This, as well as another I'll post soon, are WWII bring-backs from the GHQ era, 1945-1952, by Dad's brother Leonard.
Thanks for lookin'!