Please translate mei on waki

My grandfather brought this back after WW2 and I am looking for information about it. Would someone please translate the mei? Any ideas when it might have been made?

The nagasa is 53cm which means it is a wakizashi- correct? Any information/opinions would be greatly appreciated and would not be used for commercial reasons.

Thanks!

Patrick

I get "Bitchu no Kuni Mizuta..." and then I can't make out the last 2 Kanji, which would be the smith's name. Anyone else have better eyes?

Grey

Wouldn't that usually be followed by Kunishige?

Haven't had a good look yet..so that is a pure guess.

Brian

"Bitchu no Kuni Mizuta..." Would that refer to the province and the Mizuta school? Shinto period?

I'm new to all of this and trying to learn as I go. I attached another pic of the bottom of the mei, it's tough to photograph.

Thanks

Patrick

My index has 2 names listed that start like this: Kunimitsu and Kunishige; no other smiths made it into the references. Of the 2 this could be Kunishige, with much of the 2 Kanji lost to time and corrosion. The signature doesn't look well done, which is often a sign of gimei. Mizuta Kunishige (various generations) had a very distinctive signature that doesn't look a lot like the one in question. My guess would be gimei of Kunishige.

Grey

Hi,

That blade is not a Mizuta Kunishige.

The mei looks questionable to me because of the following two points.

1. The correct kanji for Bitchu must be 備中, not 備仲.

2. The kanji for Kuni is usually 國, not 国

The mei does look questionable compared to the pic that Jacques posted. I guess my next step is to determine if the blade is a Mizuta mumei with a gimei added or just an all around fake. Any thoughts on how I would do that?

Thanks for the great information

Patrick

Hi Patrick,

You could ask someone in you area, who is both knowledgeable and honest, to look at it. Shinsa doesn't work because we already know it's gimei and a shinsa team will say so and not much else.

You could also just forget about it. If you don't plan to become a serious collector of Nihonto and you don't plan to sell the sword, just keep it and enjoy it for what it is.

Grey