SteveM

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

庵に木瓜 Iori ni mokko Seal of the house of Itō 伊東, Kudō 工藤, and probably a million others. http://www.harimaya.com/o_kamon1/yurai/a_yurai/pack2/iori.html

I agree with every post in this thread. 1. It is (another) lovely and enigmatic saya. 2. It is probably wise to sit out a few rounds before jumping in to a $1500+ purchase 3. Having said that, offering a very low bid for the ensemble might be one way to get your feet wet, if you are indeed determined to get your feet wet. 4. The bird does in fact look like it had the same 6-year old designer as the bird in the other thread! Take it from a fellow enthusiast whose first purchase was an overpriced sword of dubious provenance; I know what it is like to become fascinated with these things, and to have your heart set on an acquisition. If you are just looking for an antique, I would buy the $400 aogai mijin-nuri saya that you posted in the other thread, and with the money you saved (you mentioned your budget was ~$1500) you can buy some books. Eventually, after your tastes have become settled or refined, you might consider getting a quality set of fuchi/kashira, menuki, and tsuba, and then you'd have something special. (The same could be said for this saya, too, except the entry point for this one, as charming as it is, is quite high).

As always, the blade's the most important thing, so probably no use fretting about the signature until you get the blade in your hand and can have a good look at it. However, since you mentioned Osaka 3rd generation Yoshimichi, I dug up some other examples of this signature. In short, I don't think this signature matches Osaka 3rd generation Yoshimichi. The Yoshi (吉) is a giveaway. Here are presumably authentic Yoshimichi 3rd gen. swords and signatures. http://www.e-sword.jp/sale/2014/1410_2041syousai.htm http://www.aoijapan.com/img/sword/2014/14674-1.jpg http://www.aoijapan.jp/%E8%84%87%E5%B7%AE%EF%BC%9A%E4%B8%B9%E6%B3%A2%E5%AE%88%E5%90%89%E9%81%93%E5%A4%A7%E9%98%AA-%E4%B8%89%E4%BB%A3 In the sword you are looking at, Yoshi is written differently from those linked above. In the sword in this post, the top component of Yoshi is 土 (つち) instead of 士 (し), a difference that is almost too subtle to notice in this font, but on the swords it becomes very apparent. The authentic swords use Yoshi with a 士 (short horizontal stroke on the bottom). There are other things, too, that would push me away from Osaka 3rd gen. Yoshimichi. Again, none of this means the sword isn't a genuine Yoshimichi. I just think its probably not Osaka 3rd. Would be great to have better pictures of the blade itself.

It is possible it could say something like that. The first two kanji aren't 後藤. They are 好若 or something like that. Neither of the two Hirotoshis listed in my reference are part of the Gotō clan. The first one in the reference is from near Hiroshima, and seems to be an independent artist. The second one is from a different school (not Gotō). So, it could possibly be something like "Disciple of Yoshiwaka" (好若弟子). However, for some reason I feel like 弟子 is a bit presumptuous. 入門 sounds more appropriate (modest), to me. So I was wondering if the 弟子 refers to someone other than the artist himself. (Or maybe I have misread it).