SteveM

叡山　（花押） Eizan　(kao)

I should have also added that there is a load of information at this very site also!

I can see them. Smith/signature is 兼光 On the other side is the Imperial Year 2601 皇紀二千六百一 which corresponds to 1941. There is also a Seki stamp (関) indicating the arsenal/factory where it was made. There is a load of information at the site here → http://ohmura-study.net/900.html

You got the month right. Stick with it a bit more. Check out the spoiler for the answer.

Regarding how family-owned antiques enter the wholesale (and then retail) market here in Japan, the link below is an interesting description from someone who has first-hand experience. https://softypapa.wordpress.com/2013/10/09/becoming-an-antique-dealer-in-Japan/

The first picture is a date. Its written quite cleanly so you might want to have a go at translating yourself using some of the links at the top, particularly. It is a modern (Showa) blade, which should be a pretty good hint. http://www.jssus.org/nkp/common_kanji.html http://www.jssus.org/nkp/useful_kanji.html 昭和二十年三月 The opposite side is a bit tricky. Looks to me like 兼立　Kanetatsu But I can find no WWII Seki smith with that name (although Kane is a very common component of Seki names). There are Kanetatsu smiths from hundreds of years ago, but this is a WWII sword, as is evidenced by the Sakura stamp in your third photo.

支那事変勃発一週年記念 One year anniversary of the Chinese Incident (Chinese War) In the engraving, both 変 and 発 use the traditional versions of the kanji. The engraver (forger?) made a mistake with the kanji in red. 週 should be 周

Another mysterious set of kanji. 依於探囗斎圖 Oite I? Tan (?) sai zu A bit too cryptic for me. Nagatsune has a fair few styles of signature, but this particular one isn't showing up in my reference.

My guess would be 之昌 ゆきまさ Yukimasa, but it is a guess without much confidence. Actually, the whole thing is a puzzle because the mei reads 矢嶋 (Yajima), but the reference I have says there are no tōsōgu smiths with that name. Strange because it looks like a fine, skillfully made tsuba. Who is this mysterious Yajima-san? Or did some goofball just decide to practice forging non-existent signatures on an otherwise handsome tsuba? Hopefully he's a real smith that is just overlooked in my reference (or maybe a modern smith?).

They are affiliated with Ginza Choshuya. Ginza Choshuya is one of the highest-end sword shops in Japan, if not the highest. I think they established the finesword website as an outlet for their relatively lower quality, more affordable stuff. The top end stuff stays at their Ginza Choshuya website. So they should be safe and (hopefully) trustworthy.

大和守芳近　　Yamato no Kami Yoshichika (Yasuchika) 芳道　Yoshimichi ? 宮城縣仙台市元柳町五二　Miyagi-ken, Sendai-shi, Motoyanagi-chō 52　 青島市魚山路二十一号甲　　Qingdao-shi, Yushan-lu #21　　　(sometimes spelled Tsingtao) 毛呂正 Moro Masa? The top address is pre-war Sendai (in Miyagi prefecture) The bottom address is Qingdao in China. Can't read the second kanji of the personal name, but the family name of the owner(?) is Moro The smith doesn't appear in any of my reference books. Looks to me like Yoshichika. Yoshi can also be read as Yasu. The second kanji of the smith could be 道 michi, as others above have suggested.

More like 遊玉, but impossible to be sure without a clearer picture.

I think you may be trying to read too much into what is standard boilerplate. The other Steve gave the correct translation above. (Although yours is not wrong, just feels a bit overdone). 専賣特許　　senbai tokkyo　Japanese equivalent of patent, or exclusive patent, if you like. Steve above translates it as monopoly patent, which is the literal (also suitable) translation. Up to the end of the war, and even still occasionally seen in some places, the characters would be arranged right to left, as they are in the scabbard cap. The bottom line is also correct 第一三二一〇六号 Number 132106 So together the two (plus the stamp on the inside of the lid) are just the equivalent of what we commonly see in America on many products: Patent pending #132106.

The inside of the lid reads 出願中 shutsuganchū, or patent pending.

長雲斎　江村　Chōunsai Emura would be the name. Emura the family name, and Chōunsai is kind of his artistic nom de guerre. 鍛之 Kore (wo) kitaeru 　means "made by"

Hello Wayne, As far as I can tell, the chalked in version makes it a bit clearer to see, but it doesn't change how anything looks. The mei still reads 長雲斉江村鍛之 But the 村 is very odd. I changed the 斎 to the simplified version 斉, but the reading/meaning is the same.

Looks like 長雲斎江丹鍛之 I would have expected 村 rather than 丹, but it looks much closer to 丹 than 村. (But, if it is 江村, you would expect 長運斎). Edit: Actually, I take that back, it does look closer to 村 than 丹. So, 長雲斎江村鍛之　　 Chōunsai Emura kore wo kitaeru (but perhaps still a puzzling 雲 which I would expect to be 運. Pronunciation is the same either way.)

And, it is written in Man'yōgana, which is a mostly phonetic representation of (basically) eight-century Old Japanese original; 都流藝多知　伊与餘刀具倍之　伊尓之敝由　佐夜氣久於比弖　伎尓之曽乃名曽 katakana: ツルギタチ　イヨヨトグベシ　イニシヘユ　サヤケクオヒテ　キニシソノナソ modern: 剣大刀　いよよ研ぐべし　古ゆ　さやけく負ひて　来にしその名そ The "modern equivalent" is still above my pay grade. I also notice a variation in the original vs. the one on the sword. 尓 has become 爾 on the sword. Cribbed from the site below http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~sg2h-ymst/yakauta_h.html. The inscription on the sword is oddly attributed(?) to a 19th-century writer, Sugawara Natsukage 菅原夏蔭.

In addition to the Sanseido entry for Kōfu there is also the Edo castle blueprints 江府御天守図 (Kōfu gotenshu no zu), as well as the Edo Chorography 江府名勝志 (Kō/Gōfu meishō-shi). This reading is consistent with the present-day 江東区 (Kōtō-ku), not to mention consistent with Japanese lexicology. Note it is not uncommon for Japanese people to mispronounce 江東区 as Etō-ku. http://tinyurl.com/pm5v44u http://tinyurl.com/nn2kf33 The association of 江 with the pronunciation "e" is so strong that to pronounce it any other way is almost counter-intuitive, hence Ginza Choshuya's kind answer to Ed. I agree completely with them. The right answer is Kōfu, but many people would naturally say Efu - and they would be completely understood. It doesn't mean they would be right. Ed - I have lived in Japan since the late 80s, the bubble years. Good times. I passed JLPT 1 (Japanese language proficiency level 1) in the early 90s. I obtained my translator's certificate shortly after getting the JLPT1. I now work in Tokyo in an industry which has absolutely nothing to do with translating (or swords, for that matter), but I love the challenge of a puzzle like Kōfu vs. Efu. By the way, JPLT1 is a very low bar (as is the translator's certificate) so don't consider that any kind of an appeal to authority. As a form of authority, it is only slightly higher than "I asked my friend who is Japanese, and he said...". It is not at all uncommon for foreigners with JLPT1 to be very poor speakers of Japanese. Likewise, I know of people in the translation business who are diabolically bad translators. Therefore, I do what I can to continue learning Japanese. It is a lifelong work-in-progress. Nowadays, the puzzles are getting so tough, I'm wrong nearly as many times as I am right. But I do continue to plug away.

On matters of swords and tōsōgu, I wouldn't presume to know more than Tsuruta-sensei, but in matters of translation, I don't think he's a very cunning linguist. http://www.weblio.jp/content/%E6%B1%9F%E5%BA%9C As a matter of fact, in the prefecture of Tottori there still exists a city called 江府 (Kōfu). The reason many Japanese are able to mispronounce this with such confidence is because they associate the kanji 江 with 江戸 Edo, and they assume the E reading carries across to compound words like 江府 or 江都.

This should help http://www.nihontomessageboard.com/articles/sword_law.pdf

江府 is pronounced Kōfu In the Japanese papers it would only appear as 江府. Translating this into English as Efu would be a common mistake, particularly for a novice. I wouldn't freak out about it.

If the smith is a pre-war smith, and if his mei is established as being 廣光, its very unlikely (I would say unbelievable) that you'll find any of his swords that use the simplified version of 廣.

廣 (hiro) is the traditional (old) way of writing 広. The writing was simplified after the war, and now you no longer find 廣 except in historical references. Families have the option to continue using the old/traditional kanji in their family names, but generally nowadays one only sees 廣 in old documents, etc.. 弘 (hiro) is a different word with the same pronunciation. Actually, it is almost exclusively used in proper names, and has no practical meaning if used by itself, opposed to 広 above which means wide, and is used frequently in everyday Japanese.

Hello Ben - I don't know about the painted markings. Gunto is uncharted territory for me. People used to hold up their noses at gunto, but looking at the quality of some of the pieces and at the prices they are starting to fetch, its interesting to see them gain a bigger following. You are on the right track for the first character. I think the radical (left side of that kanji) may indeed be 扌or 礻or 衤or possibly 子, but I don't think the character would be 掾 because that is a part of a title that was used in earlier days, and you wouldn't see it used as part of a two-kanji name. I looked for showa smiths whose names ended in 久, but there are only a few and none of them have names that resemble the kanji on your sword. Of course 久 could be completely wrong too. Sorry, its just a bit too indecipherable for me. Maybe somebody else will have some luck in picking it out.