SteveM

Don't know about the sword, but the mei on the kogatana is The mei on the sword could start out the same, but it could also be something completely different. Not enough of the sword mei for me to take even a wild guess.

I think 乙卯年 (kinotou-nen), which would be 1975. After that it might be 弥生 (Yayoi), or March.

濃州関前川兼継作 Nōshū Seki Maekawa Kanetsugu saku (made by Maekawa Kanetsugu from Seki in Nōshū province) Another sword by this smith in the thread below http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/5944-translation-request/

I think its supposed to be Gōshū-jū Ichimine 江州住一峯

Looks right to me： OIte Kishū Shigekuni Tsukuru Kore (Actually if the whole thing were converted from the kanbun style it would probably be read: Kishū ni oite Shigekuni kore wo tsukuru)

When the nihonto bug first bites, resisting the urge to buy one, any one, that strikes your fancy and is within your price range is a hard thing to do. In truth, I think it is a battle most people lose. I lost it, and my first purchase (like many on this board, I presume) was a shonky gimei wakizashi. I bought it because a) it had a signature!, and b] it had a hamon!. There were other factors too: I was living temporarily in Japan and I didn't know how long my stay would last - I thought it would be a good souvenir (or, that was part of my justification for buying it). It came from a small-town sword shop, the kind that is so far off the beaten path you would never normally go there. Unfortunately I had no idea what I was buying. I had no idea it might be gimei. I had no idea that the market is awash in gimei wakizashi of poor-to-average quality. As a young man, that $1000 I spent on the sword would have served me better in the bank, or in shares, or in a proper suit. Or, it would have brought me $1000 closer to a proper sword. But I spent it, and that's that. I still have the shonky gimei wakizashi. It didn't kill me. It did teach me a few things, and I was able to learn about caring for the sword, and assembling the parts, and it helped me familiarize myself with the terminology. And it was money spent at a time when I had no other obligations; no kids, no house payment, etc... But its something I dread re-selling to a proper sword shop because they will roll their eyes and then maybe give me a hundred bucks for it out of sympathy. The sword on ebay is the same kind of sword, I think. Perhaps slightly better than my first purchase.

Take a look at the sharp, crisp inscriptions of these papered Yasuhiro swords and compare. It doesn't look good for your sword, I'm afraid. http://www.samuraishokai.jp/sword/09112.html http://www.giheiya.com/shouhin_list/japanese_sword/wakizashi/03-1024.html http://www.token-net.com/juyotoken/tachibana_yasuhiro.html

I saw the one I think you are talking about. Nice-looking sword. Great photographs. Some interesting hataraki. The sword is a bit scratched up near the habaki, and there is not a very clean shot of the boshi (which is a shame considering the detailed photographs of everything else). I don't know anything about the certificate that comes with this sword. It is not a standard NBTHK or NTHK paper, so it should be considered to have negligible value. In any event, it adds nothing to the sword. Kind of an undistinguished smith during the somewhat problematic kanbun era. Problematic only because collectors and aficionados tend to find the kanbun swords to be uninteresting, and therefore kanbun swords are out of favor. This is a generalization of course. Inoue Shinkai was from the kanbun era, and his swords are beautiful, pricey, and very much sought after. The Kaneyasu on ebay... not so much. Stay the course and continue saving up for a koto sword of some distinction. Resist the urge to spend good money on an cheap ebay sword.

http://www.token-net.com/soldout/201310-25.html http://katanatogishi.seesaa.net/article/413681731.html http://www.seiyudo.com/ka-098129.htm Here are a few more. I just did a random search for 粟田口藤原忠綱. You can copy and past into a search engine and may get different results.

Looks interesting. I like the hada. The fittings seem to be a hodgepodge of garden variety tosogu (looks to me like a WW2-style replica kashira, and the ray skin looks to be new), but the sword looks very good.

Here you go. I leave this with a spoiler alert in case anyone wants to try their own hand at translating this one.

I have never heard or read that. I would be surprised if that were the case. As John says above, I don't think there is any significant weight differential between the two.

I'm thinking 備後国東城住小鳥宜邦 Bingo no kuni Tōjō-jū Kotori Nobukuni (or Yoshikuni, or Masakuni, etc...). The four dots on the bottom of that kanji are the giveaway, and also there is still a location with the name 小鳥原 in what would have been Tōjō Bingo (present day Hiroshima). Except it has an unusual pronunciation 小鳥原 hitotobara, so I don't know exactly how this inscription might be pronounced. (The region's website says this area used to be a steel-producing area). But...as John above, and I suspect Piers too, I couldn't find any smith with the name 宜邦 in any of my references or searches. Unfortunately, the hay-whacking years have really taken their toll on this poor blade, so I don't think there is much to salvage.

Motif on kashira is pine needles. You can see more of the same here http://www.tokka.biz/fittings/FK168.html And a nice tsuba which would make a good matching set here (same shop, actually) http://www.tokka.biz/fittings/TS642.html Not sure about the fuchi as I can't get a good look at it (normally one would assume its the same, though). Interesting sword. I wonder about the boshi...maybe this together with the unusual yasurime is is an indication the blade was re-shaped.

村山国次　Murayama Kunitsugu.

As above - looks like typical shobu-zukuri. From the looks of the tang I'd guess that it has not been shortened. I don't have a clue about the marks. They don't look military, and neither does the size or the shape of the sword. Shinto would also be my guess. The polish will most likely cost more than you could recover in re-sale (but it would definitely improve the appearance).

Interesting mark, interesting inscription. I've never seen the crane emblem on a sword before. It is a kamon, but I don't know if it has some other significance here on the sword. Here are some families that use the "crane-in-circle" kamon. http://www.ippongi.com/2009/01/15/tsuru/ The inscription on the reverse side to the Tadahiro inscription is also interesting. Looks like it says 囗宝來山作　(something Horai-san saku) I can't make out the first kanji - it reminds me of 挫, but the kanji on the sword is different. Horai-san is the name of a shrine, and so my guess would be that this sword was made near, or somehow connected with Horai-san shrine. Maybe the crane motif is also connected to the shrine. http://houraisan.com/

On the fuchi and kashira is a family crest of triple oak leaf in circle (丸に三つ葉柏). It is the crest belonging to a number of family names in Japan (eg. Makino, Yamauchi, etc). Alas, these names are very common, so I'm afraid you couldn't pinpoint the original owners by looking at this alone. (But perhaps it is some indication that the person who ordered the koshirae was a person who had a bit of disposable cash and could spend it on bling. I think the gold-lacquer tipped saya also is evidence of this.).

My guess is 家吉　Ieyoshi

They are random kanji numbers stamped on to the nakago: 6, 3, something, 5. The "something" may have been a 4 that has had another kanji stamped over it.

New feature-film on Japanese swords opening in Japan at end of May. I don't know much about this... it just popped up in one of my social media feeds. http://toukenmovie.jp/

Doesn't look particularly strange to me. A few of the transliterations of the tag are wrong: should be Takehara (and I'm not quite sure if he was a Major or not. Maybe Chief Warrant Officer? 兵曹長?). Can't find any reference for this Matsumoto Platoon either. But the sword itself and the fittings look OK.

I thought this one was exceptional. Its about sword-polishing. Another poster linked to it in a recent thread. I was fascinated by the life and the dedication and the various twists their stories took. It may have been posted in the thread discussing the potential of westerners to become established polishers and then passing on their craft to other westerners. You can see in this documentary it takes a certain kind of dedication and acceptance of (submission to?) tradition to pursue this calling.

Yes, Jussi is correct. The reverse side looks like 昭和二十年三月 Shōwa 20 (1945), March

Yoroi Bitsu http://www.xn--u9j370humdba539qcybpym.jp/archives/4760 Sometimes you see them on display in the tokonoma of a Japanese room, but I kind of doubt this was general practice in Edo times.