John A Stuart

Mauro's example is mumei Shoami. John

The text says it was a secret weapon for drilling a hole in the hull under water to sink ships. Not a very convincing drill and who could hold their breath long enough to drilling to penetrate. Text goes further to say the idea of this tool gave rise to explosive weapons (BS, mines were in use centuries earlier) attached to the hulls of ships during WW II. Sounds like wishful thinking or a story from Jules Verne. Goodness, why would an underwater secret weapon be so redundantly fitted with such fittings? John

The proper way. http://www.johnstuart.biz/new_page_22.htm

Too bad. John

No relationship at all. The Nara group is c. 17th 18th cen. This Ido Toshinaga guy is 19th century and a Mito group artisan. John

Yes, with Ido in there. John

Yes, I misspelled with h instead of k, said like bak-fu. I couldn't tell if the last bit was 78 year old man or 70 year old man. You are probably right though, it is hachi not jin. John

I don't know which Bungo Takada Fujiwara Noriyuki this is. You have many to search through. It is legit, but, runs a whole gamut of possibilities. John

Yes. Bunkyu san I nen yogatsu. 1863 Boar year 8th month.

Bahukushi Kawai Hisayuki shichi ju Ojin (Okinajin) saku. 幕府士川井久幸七十人翁作 Made by the shogunate gentleman Kawai Hisayuki as an old man of seventy. John

The first two are Yamamoto. 山本 The problem is the 龟 which in Chinese, is guei, turtle. ?? John

Maybe 'Wish fulfillment'. John

Center line, 贈署員一同, ?? As a gift? from the staff. Maybe.

Right line, 長津警察署 Nagatsu Police Station.

This Kanenobu is defo not WWII era. Probably Shinto Mino Kanbun era. John

Do I read aright? It is a wakizashi, but, using enough steel that it could have been forged into a katana? I have a wakizashi that is heavier than some katana I have. Is that the same thing as the Shinkai exemplar? John

Try using 'more reply options' to upload your picture. John

Yanagi minus the 'gin' appears often with respect to swords and certain ryu. I haven't read about a meito with such a name, but, there is a type of Chinese sword called a willow leaf sword and there are Japanese willow leaf spearheads and arrowheads. It could be a name someone had inscrbed as a personalisation. Pics would be a help. John

長光 Nagamitsu. John

Guanyin, Avalokitesvara originally the supreme creator from Hindu is a male deity being feminised by time to what we have now. Strange, but, true. john

Just another name for inazuma, no?

Perhaps Noshu junin Nobutaka. It is worn and hard for me to read confidently. John

I care just about, not one little bit, about Nazi, IJA, Russian etc. WW II memorabilia. The sword in its purest sense, whether Japanese, Cossack, French, British, Persian etc. is of infinite more interest. To Jean-Pierre, I read many comics having as villains Japanese soldiers and they were very disparaging character assassinations. In fact even more so than the Nazi villains portrayal. Some cartoon reels between features carried on this depiction, true propaganda. As to why was great gobs of stuff exported by foreign GI's; if it isn't nailed down, swoosh, appropriated, the colonial mindset. Japan

Even this can be faked. Just take a new pottery piece and x-ray it a couple of times and voila. The test measures accumulated irradiation over time. Two small samples are ground, one is dose irradiated and both are heated to give a glow curve and compared. It is valid in dug or found samples that have provenance, but, not so much for intelligently faked pieces. John

Haaaaaa! John