SteveM

Reinhard, no one is arguing that text wasn't read right to left, or even that it wasn't the main form of writing horizontally. I am merely pushing back on your statement that kanji HAD to be written right to left. This is false, and there are examples of where it was written left to right. Here is a copy of a mathematic textbook from 1939 written left to right Here is a copy of an advertisement from 1919, again, left to right.

Is there anything on the kozuka to indicate it being attributed to "Tokujo"?

Actually there was no law that determined the direction that Japanese had to be written. Writing from left to right was not forbidden, or unheard of, and there were official publications as well as commercial publications that wrote left to write. The Ministry of Education and the Army promoted a left-to-right writing standard in the middle of the war, in 1942, but ultra-nationalist elements of the military, as well as the newspapers, never got on board. But the army as an entity was not hostile to the idea. And, just to throw this out there, Tamachi (田町) is also an acceptable Japanese family name, though Machida is much more common.

Hello Thomas, what I am saying is; I am not convinced the mei on yours is Hidenobu (英宣). Rather, I think yours could well be Hideyoshi, or Teruyoshi. OR, yours could be an attempt at trying to be one of those (in other words, an attempt at forging Hideyoshi or Teruyoshi). The 英 character in Mauro's post is quite different from the one engraved on your item, and the 宣/宜 one on yours is different also. It's a bit hard to make a judgment, since the photo from Mauro's reference book is such a low resolution. Mind you, it could also be an attempt at Hidenobu (英宣) as well... there just is no great reference available to compare. Now the work itself looks like Gotō, or possibly a Gotō mannerist. So that is something that pushes it close to the Hidenobu camp (the differences in the mei notwithstanding). But shishi on a nanako background is generic enough to be Ōmori (or Ōmori mannerist/plagiarist) as well - so I can't say with confidence one way or the other. Just saying to leave the door open for other possibilities, as that page from Mauro's post doesn't feel like its enough to close the door on the Hideyoshi or Teruyoshi possibilities.

貞継之鍛 Sadatsugu kore wo kitau It means, "Sadatsugu forged this". Sadatsugu is the smith's name. As you probably can imagine, he was a WW2 smith. Same smith as in the post below.

I don't think there is a specific name for that. Most shirasaya don't have any tags or stickers on them. This looks like an address, so maybe the address of the owner, or of the person who ordered the shirasaya, etc... Edit: In case you were wondering, it's an address in Tokyo that no longer exists. Akasaka-ward, Fukuyoshi-chō. Corresponds to present-day Minato-ward, Akasaka-2, 6 chome. The city wards and neighborhoods have changed since the time this tag was written.

Is the signature in the original piece 英宜 (Teruyoshi, of the Ōmori school? Or is it 英宣 (Hidenobu aka Okamoto, unrelated to the Ōmori school - the one that Mauro posted)? The kanji looks deceptively similar to 宜. Or could it be 英宜 (Hideyoshi), a smith unrelated to the Ōmori school, but using the same characters as Teruyoshi, with different pronunciation of the first character)? To me it looks like 英宜, but I don't know which one it is trying to be, the Ōmori school Teruyoshi, or the unrelated Hideyoshi. (I have no reference pictures of either Teruyoshi or Hideyoshi, so I can't make a comparison).

I think its this one

My opinion: ignore that internet sales blurb. There is nothing to indicate that sword was handed down from any illustrious person or clan. It has a name on it, as many WW2 swords do. The name is reasonably common. The location of the engraving is unusual. Often the family name or crest will be pressed onto a small steel or alloy cartouche (something about the size of a small button), which is then affixed to the pommel. A name engraved on the handle (tip of the pommel) is slightly unusual to me, but as I said, it indicates some level of customization, which is a good thing to have in WW2 memorabilia. Forget about any presumed samurai clan affiliation. Its just the seller trying to add some romantic allure to the item.

For completeness, the kanji on the end of the handle do indeed read "Machida" (町田) indicating this was the name of the owner, at least during the war when the fittings were made. Machida, however, is a very common family name, and there is nothing that explicitly ties it to any famous family bearing that name. Having said that, to me it indicates the family who possessed it during the war had enough money to spend on this small customization, which is something. And it ties the sword to an actual person, even though we may not know that person's full name. So its a nice thing to have on a bit of militaria. Well, this is one of those swords that straddles the gap between militaria and antique "samurai" sword. Or, militaria and "nihonto", if you like. In regard to Hoshi's comments above, I agree with just about everything he has written, except for this one bit which I think is highly unlikely, Pretty hard to imagine this was a spelling error. I think the second part of that sentence is much more likely; i.e. some kind of disfiguration intended to deceive, or maybe someone started to erase the signature and either gave up, or abandoned it for some other reason. And I think the person to whom he is referring towards the end of his post is @Andrew Ickeringill, NMB member, Australia-based polisher, and occasional poster here.

天地正恒　Amachi Masatsune Here's another one by the same smith edit: fixed a typo. Merci, Jean.

Not Ōmori Teruhide, but another signature from the Ōmori school. Maybe Ōmori Terufusa (大森英房). But even the name of a lesser-known smith from a big (popular) school ought to be looked at with some suspicion.

Yes, that's right. A day in February, Kaei 2 (1849).

I also think they are just an abstract design - and the tosogu world has, through custom and convenience, applied the name "namako" or "namako sukashi". The main reason I doubt they are artistic representations of sea slugs is that we don't find sea slugs in any other related item. No sea slugs on menuki, fuchi/kashira, kozuka, armor, family crests, etc... And you don't find any positive relief images, or inlaid images of sea slugs. It's just not a thing, and if tsuba artisans were so impressed with the sea slug as an image, one would expect to find sea slugs elsewhere in Japanese crafts.

I think even more recent than Showa. Possibly a Chinese-made, modern day iaitō. Another one similar to this one here at the thread below. There is also a similar sword on Reddit. Note the 謙 character isn't usually read as "kane". That kanji is usually seen as a stand-alone character and pronounced "Ken" (The actor Watanabe Ken uses this kanji in his name). I don't think I've ever seen it used as 謙之 (Kaneyuki).