thirdtuck

a Japanese friend of mine found a short video of a sword with the same signature as mine. he inscibed that blade without the fujiwara characters.

the signature does match the one from above, however, the one above has two additional characters that my blade doesn't have. does it make sense that he would have shortened what was inscribed on my blade because it is a much smaller piece and cannot fit those characters in the inscription? my wife, who is chinese, can make out some of the characters and told me that Japanese written language was heavily influence/borrowed from the chinese. hence the older the insciption, the more it looks like chinese. i'm planning to take the sword to st. augustine to the Southeast Japnese Sword Show and Auction in february to submit it for shinsa.

has anyone heard of this guys: Heianjo ju Kuniuji? I got an email back from a renowned polisher who recognized the smith to be this guy.

sounds good, thank you for the heads up Stephen. can you recommend anyone who can rewrap the tsuka, refurbish the saya and polish the blade?

thank you for welcoming me a board! this is certainly a fascinating world. the blades are beautiful works of art that I can certainly appreciate, but what burns me is the history behind them. i have this huge desire to understand where this blade came from and how my great great uncle got his hands on it. he was able to successfully treat a high ranking Japanese official while he was chief surgeon of the US Naval Hospital at Yokaham around 1905. This official also gave him a silver chalice that is a priceless heirloom passed onto me. I'm wondering if this official is who he also got the sword from. I'm not sure how to go about finding out the name but that would be a huge piece to the puzzle. i definitely want to learn more and start collecting some nice Japanese swords. I have purchased the book by John Yamoto and also a uchiko from Amazon. I am going to call around to try to find someone who can repair the handle and possible sharpen and clean up the blade a little! thank you guys for all your help and i'm very excited to be amongst your ranks!

sorry, yes my name is T. Percy

a friend of mine showed her sister-in-law who is Japanese pictures of the sword and she said the characters are Chinese. Does this make any sense at all? Did the Chinese manufacture Japanese swords in the late 1800's?

btw, i'm sorry for the shitty pictures, i tried to get the best light possible on the tang

i appreciate all of ya'lls feedback. my plan is to keep it and pass it on as a familly heirloom. i'm trying to learn as much about it and my great great uncle as possible so that when i pass it on I can have the story that goes with it. was it a common thing back in the 1600s to forge a signature on a blade such as this. it is not even a katana but a wazishaki? and it also looks as if the last character was etched and then that hole was drilled which detracts from the character. why is that the case? it seems to be a bit of a mystery!

can anyone help me with this translation? the sword has been passed down to me from my great great uncle who was a naval surgeon stationed in Yokohama around 1900. He was with Admiral Dewey at the battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish American war. I'm trying to figure out whether this sword has value and if I should invest in having it restored. Any and all help will be much appreciated as I travel down the rabbit hole and into this world of Nihanto!