Hi there. An acquaintance of mine was showing me two Japanese swords he had in his collection, one was a replica nodachi and the second was a second world war katana. The latter had inscriptions on both sides of blade near the 'back' of the blade edge. He was not able to translate the inscriptions, since he doesn't speak Japanese. So I wrote down the inscriptions and showed it to a Japanese friend of mine. One of the inscriptions was the date the weapon was forged (no surprises there) , the second year of the Showa era (about 1928, according to google). However the second inscription's kanji is the one causing the most trouble. Here is the kanji in question: http://i1001.photobucket.com/albums/af136/water300/DSCF1494.jpg Apologies for using a photo, but my pc/chrome/firefox is being an pain and I can't view Japanese characters unless I jump through computerised hoops(I'll leave that fun till later). Can anyone make sense of this?
Just to clarify, are you saying that the inscription was on the blade itself (exposed above the tsuba)? A Mei (signature) is found on the nakago (tang), the portion of the blade found inside the tsuka, not on the blade itself, an inscription there is closer to a horimono, a decorative carving in the side of the blade. If it's supposed to be a Mei, and is found on the polished portion of the blade, that'd give me doubts as to the sword itself, honestly. If, on the other hand, it's an inscription for luck, for instance, that's not common (dragons, tsurugi, that kind of thing are more common), but it's not outside of the realms of possiblity, and could change what should be looked for in a translation.
Yes, both inscriptions were made above the tsuba. I doubt that it is a signature based on the meaning of the individual kanji themselves. The issue is the meaning form the kanji as a whole. I was wondering if anyone had come across it in their own travels. As you say, we both guessed that if there was a signature it would be on the nakago (tang), however tsuka's (handle) screws look a bit dodgy from age and my friend was nervous about touching them in case he would be unable to put it back together. That's what I was guessing, for luck or a name(of the blade). Thanks for the link, I'll post there. Thanks for the replies so far, its appreciated.
My shingunto has "Fortune of battle lives forever" engraved on the nakago, that was translated for me by a Japanese aikidoka who was acting as translator for one of Hombu dojo's teachers whilst visiting the UK, even though he born post WWII, he was still a little uneasy with the metaphorical meaning of the statement. Interestingly enough that sword is dated showa ju hachi nen which means it was made right at the end of the war period and, despite this, it's still a well made toshin and kosherei by mass produced standards. Anyway, sorry for the derail.
Pretty interesting. And that's not even close to a derail, so there's no reason to apologise. I'll get photos up when I can. Hopefully that will be later today.
Finally got the photos. According to my friend he opened the handle and there was no engraving on the tang. So the chances of it being handmade is slim to none. Here are the photographs of the engravings: http://i1001.photobucket.com/albums/af136/water300/184637_140116119388472_100001702551833_274997_453261_n.jpg http://i1001.photobucket.com/albums/af136/water300/197827_140115906055160_100001702551833_274996_97018_n.jpg
Hmm, the characters seem to be 万 Ten Thousand (Man) 東 East (To) 京 Capital (Kyo) - these two combine to make Tokyo 小 Small (Sho). So, uh, "Ten Thousand Small Tokyo's"? What interests me, though, is the make up of the blade itself. It doesn't look like a "typical" Japanese blade. It looks like a more modern (even later than WWII), one of the more modern "Damascus" types of metalwork. Are we sure that it's actually a genuine Nihonto?
I have a couple of Chinese copies of gunto with the same Damascus pattern, bought for about £50-70 each. Not a gunto (and therefore not Japanese), IM(limited)HO.
That's what I was referring to(sorry if it wasn't clear in the previous photo). It doesn't make sense. I didn't think it was possible to get a clear translation due to the nature of the kanji, but there was nothing to loose. Anyway thanks for the help, it was appreciated.
