SteveM

Hello Joe, You need to go a bit farther down on that site, where it shows all the combinations of the zodiac signs and what they correspond to in the gregorian calendar. Look for this particular combination on line 57 after the Twelve Earthly Branches chart. The kanji don't represent individual numerals, they represent a position on a 60-year cycle that keeps repeating. Since Shōwa lasted longer than 60 years, there are a few zodiac combinations that repeat themselves within Shōwa. But Shōwa is an outlier, and usually eras are much, much shorter, and so there is no ambiguity about what year the combination refers to.

The writing in the white box says "富嶽三十六景" (Thirty Six Views of Fugaku/Fuji), as well as the name of this print, which is listed as #2 in the series in the wikipedia entry. The other line (outside the box) is the artist's name. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty-six_Views_of_Mount_Fuji Sometimes there is a printer's mark or cartouche on the margin of the print that points to a time frame. It would be tough to tell the printer just from looking at the print.

乗意　Jyōi　　（I think) Wakayama says that Nagaharu 永春 was one of his "art" names (Go - 号）

This one (kan-man) might look a bit closer to the mark. (Respectfully lifted from a Rakuten site...) http://item.rakuten.co.jp/kuubokumon/a-2/

Kan-man (不動明王) makes sense, but I'm starting to think the one on the right has the wrong orientation, and ought to be rotated 180 degrees (and the top bonji would be the one for Bishamon-ten 毘沙門天)

The signature is fine. 高田住藤原統景 (Takada-jū Fujiwara Munekage). The sword looks OK to me. Nothing fabulous. In need of a polish, but unfortunately the polishing may cost more than the finished product is worth on the open market. How do you take such awesome pictures, by the way? Edit: Here is one in a better state of polish http://sinogi.dee.cc/katarogu/1801/munekage-k269078/k269078.htm

I think 神水汲 (Kami mizukumi?). Seems to be a reference to Hachiman Shrine in Hakozaki, Fukuoka (formerly Chikushū), but I don't get the rest of it. Also, I think the smith's name is 美昌 (Yoshimasa) On the reverse 文化元年十一月日

I have a personal theory that some mekugi ana are added to gimei swords deliberately to cover up a counterfeit job gone wrong.

↑ Well done. The bit in the square bracket just means the top left part kanji 守 (the "u" kanmuri) breaks to the left. Attaching a picture of the 守 in question. (I have no idea if what they are saying is true about 1st generation... I would be very suspicious about cheap Shinkai blades on auction sites).

Study the sword, find out more about the smith, compare it with other swords, etc... These are all the ways to find out more about your sword. There should be tons of threads or posts regarding rusty WWII blades on this site, so fiddle around with the search function to see what pops up. My guess is that yours is a typical WWII foundry-forged and oil-quenched gunto. Its just a guess - I have no knowledge of Kanenaga other than the few samples that popped up when I Googled him, so that might also be a good place to start. Jean mentioned Kanekiyo, so you might also Google that smith (gunto + Kanekiyo) to see if there are any samples that pop up, and then compare yours against those samples. I think the first two kanji on the revers side are 昭和 Shōwa. The month is November, as you surmise.

包永　Kanenaga, I think. See another example here http://winners-auction.jp/productDetail/10786

Great info, and just goes to show you (me) that even the Japanese dealers sometimes don't know what they have.

I think mostly ceremonial swords presented by the government. Maybe given to politicians, nobility, community leaders, police chiefs, fire chiefs, etc...

脇下落平地 Supposed to be a cutting test inscription. Same thing at the link below (or maybe the same sword?) http://winners-auction.jp/productDetail/38677

The clue is in the last sentence of the description 茎に刻まれた記号は、当時、政府の要請より文官用に製作されたことをあらわしている。

Looking at this positively; at least the seller linked to this site! I suppose its sort of bad form to come for free advice and then use that in a commercial transaction, but... as Antti says above, its not something to lose sleep over. Good luck to him. If the guy had come on the board and said "I'm thinking of putting this on ebay, can you help me?" I probably would have still done the translation. Maybe whoever buys it will be motivated to take good care of the sword and the saya.

Swords from top to bottom are: Ōishi Chikara's Tantō Akabane Shigekata's Sword　(signature something Masamune)　nb: I can't read the kanji before Masamune Mase Kyūdayū's Sword Maebara Munefusa's Wakizashi (illegible, to me anyway) Muramatsu Takanao's Sword (no signature) Edit: Yes these are all weapons from the 47 Samurai.

The labels for the spears are (from left to right) Mimura Jiroemon's Spear Tominomori Suke-emon's Spear (signed Kawachi no Kami Sukekuni) Isogai Masahisa's Spear (signed Yamato Dai-jo Yoshinobu) donated by Tokitō Tamemoto Hazama Mitsukaze's Spear (Katsushige?) Ōishi Nobukiyo's Spear (signed Kagehira) Hara Sōemon's Spear donated by Hara Kumakichi can't read some of the labels very clearly.

Ahhh. I get it. 加州住　 California sometimes (rarely nowadays) is translated into kanji as 加州. So 加州住 gets machine translated into "California living". I guess this is a slightly more plausible translation than "living in Kaga province", but one day, soon, machine translation will be clever enough to determine when 加州 should be California or Kaga.

Bravo! That's it! Patent for the saya lid, awarded to Iida Kunitarō, proprietor of the shop above.

Any links or context?

Didn't I read somewhere (probably on this forum) recently where the Iida locking mechanism was developed by the predecessor (grandparent?) of the owners of the Iida Kōendō sword shop in Mejiro (Tokyo), and presumably related to the Iida Sword shop in the photo above? Edit: It is the predecessor of Iida Koendo... I found the same picture on their website. http://iidakoendo.com/info/history/ (still don't know if they are the origins of the saya locking mechanism)

Maybe not much of a help, but the vase itself looks like Kyoto cloisonne enamel (京七宝 Kyō-shippō) I was thinking the mark is something like 山一 (Yama-ichi), with the red angle representing a mountain over the kanji numeral for "one". But goofing around with the search engine didn't uncover anything like that.

西嶋氏 Nishijima shi (uji) I agree that it refers to the owner, rather than a manufacturer.

The set with the Chinese sage: April, 1976