SteveM

I guess the official name of the policy through which the government solicited swords from the public was Guntō Hōkoku (軍刀報国), and this name appears in both the appreciation certificate, and in the leaflet that Bruce posted a picture of on June 28, 2020 (at the top of the thread).

As advertised, its an official letter of appreciation (from Japan's Military Officer's Hall), given in thanks for the donation of a sword. It doesn't mention the sword maker/type, etc... Year is 1942.

Was hoping to get a shot of the actual inscription. Presumably it means "in commemoration of", but I can find no other reference to this kind of inscription, and don't know how you would pronounce it. Maybe (in kanbun style) kore de (date) wo omotte. (With this, we commemorate/remember the date). But... I suggest this with low confidence.

OK - Thank you! That makes it simpler; the cut was performed in Amagasaki in Settsu province, on Dec 18th, Shō-ō 1 (1652), by Mozume Kyūbei.

The cut was made at Amagasaki (a city in present-day Hyōgo prefecture) in February (presumably 1652), and the sword was inscribed with the cutting test results on December 18th, of the same year. The cutter was Mozume Kyūbei.

I'm sure that's a monogram (kaō) and so it would be unique to the author. It's hard to tell what kanji the author stylized it from. Usually the kaō is made from a part, or parts, of the family name, but could be some variation of 正 (true, correct) or 眞 (also true, truth, sincere).

One could be the date of the test, and the other the date the inscription was added. Unsure. (my reading of 梅津 could be incorrect as well, or the reading could be correct, but the interpretation of "August" "February" could be incorrect"). 梅津 is a poetic name for August February, but... it is a bit rare. Edit: Oops, correction, 梅津 is a poetic name for February. I'll leave the spoiler as is (with the error untouched) Edit #2: Had to fix a typo in a name. I should also add that the name of the cutter is not included in Guido Schiller's list of known cutters. Unknown, or known at the time, but just rare to see on swords.... who knows. I should keep track of these "unknown" cutters (who have very confident signatures) and create an appendix to Guido's list.

Shō'ō = Jō'ō (with or without diacritical marks...both are the same, and I think both are acceptable pronunciations).

I think 承應元年壬辰十二月拾八日梅津於尼崎 三つ胴切落物集女九兵衛（花押）

And to add to John's correct post above, the flag is presented to a Mr. INOKUCHI Asaharu (井口朝春). This is the name to the right of the "good luck in battle" phrase mentioned above. INOKUCHI is the surname (family name) of the person to whom the flag was presented. There are other possible readings in addition to INOKUCHI (for example, it may also be read as IGUCHI). The flag was presented by the "Young Men's Association of the 13th Precinct". It would take a bit more research to pinpoint the exact location of that precinct. Most of the rest of the writing would be the names of the signers. Looks legitimate to me.

大津絵にも囗囗ハ いかに囗囗囗 Ōtsue ni mo ~ Ikani ~ Even in Ōtsue --- I can't pick out the other bits. The reference is to a kind of folk art called "Ōtsue”, which you are probably already aware of.

I would also caution against drawing hard conclusions based on machine translations of the texts above. Japanese language contains a lot of subtleties and ambiguities which can go missing, or can get translated into non-negotiable English terms, when translated by google or AI. Plus, the translations often stumble over kanji, which themselves contain information that may get lost in translation.

Yes Enpō 7 (己未) year of the sheep

Tsuba should be right side: 城州西陣住 left side: 埋忠橘重義 Jōshū Nishijin-jū Umetada Tachibana Shigeyoshi

近江大掾藤原忠廣 Ōmi Daijō Fujiwara Tadahiro (Made by Tadahiro Fujiwara, Lord of Ōmi Province).