SteveM

My guess is the Masahiro who was active at the end of the Edo era. Signed his pieces 政廣（花押）. This is a different Masahiro from Ishiguro Masahiro. Interesting because the artist name, 勇龍齊 should be a dead giveaway, but my reference doesn't list this name. Meikan more （名鑑漏れ) as they say.

Hello George, The Shimizus are a privileged branch of the Tokugawa family. Google Translate doesn't handle the many variations of Japanese names well, and so the two characters that make up the name Atsumori (篤 + 守) sometimes get rendered awkwardly, such as the "AtsushiMamoru" that you have above. Atsumori would have had fairly high status as a member of the Shimizu clan, and so he would have been referred to as lord or possibly prince (even though he was far down on the succession list). In the late 1800's, the Japanese government implemented an almost European royal hierarchy system, using royal titles imported from China. Shimizu was given the title of "伯爵" (Hakushaku) which is sometimes translated as Count, and sometimes as Earl. In the picture, he is wearing a kanmuri-type crown. His hair is pulled and oiled back, and the crown is fixed to the head using a strap that goes under the chin. http://www.shouzokushi.com/item/detail.php?no=19 The sword is a tachi. Not much to say about it from the outside - one can only guess as to what the scabbard is holding inside. Given that he is just a boy in this picture, we might guess that it is a smallish sword, and probably not anything of huge value, but that is just my speculation. Clothing...very far from my area of expertise, I'm afraid. To me, the picture you have posted looks like it might have been taken on the occasion of his "coming of age". It looks more like formal Japanese court attire, rather than traveling gear. He looks very boyish!. Great picture. Here is a picture of him in later life (the first picture) http://omugio.exblog.jp/17544006/

A bit too far gone for me. Just from looking at it I would guess 文六, but I don't see any such name in my reference. Could possibly be 丈六, but that name doesn't exist either. The two glyphs at the top right are even more of an enigma. They don't look like kanji (or bonji). A mystery.

If you look up 元儔 (Mototomo) you should find him. (Ōyama/Sekijōken School) 東意 寿松斎 aka 元儔 Edit: I like it too. Very interesting piece.

If I could revise and add to the google translation: The Daimyo Tōroku mentioned in the description is a phrase specific to the sword trade, and it points to the swords registered from 1951. Apparently there was resistance to the sword registration - people thought it was a ruse for the government to grab swords. The government appealed to the old nobility and families of wealth (in other words those who were sure to have swords), to register their swords. So "Daimyo Tōroku" means any sword registered in 1951. I couldn't find anything on the person who registered this sword (Hiro Aikatsu, I think). Alas, the sword has already been snapped up. Interesting to note that all of the furnishings are crescent moons, too. We have the ongoing discussion on the forum about the aesthetics of the themed koshirae: an interesting topic for me because several years ago I made a koshirae with a tiger theme, and in retrospect I am having some doubts about the choice (was it a bit too simplistic?). Seeing all these crescent moons gives me some comfort that my comparatively subtle tiger theme is probably OK, and I might not need to spend any more time second-guessing it. http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1065765970

I think the signature in the far right of the original post is 乙柳軒　(Otsuryū-ken). The label in the box hints at 柳, but 軒 is illegible. And the label is missing the 乙 entirely. However 乙柳軒 is the artist's name of 政随, so I'm pretty confident that is what is on the far right picture.

辰政　　Tokimasa Can't help you on determining whether or not it is genuine.

I think 如竹 (Nyochiku).

1941 (Imperial Calendar Year 2601) Kumagai Army Flight School 7th Graduation Medallion

http://www.jssus.org/nkp/index.html This page (several pages) is good as well. Dates are expressed in a couple of ways, but usually Era name + Year + Month/Day. If you are looking exclusively at Showa blades, you only need to look for 昭和 (Shōwa) and then you can be pretty sure the following kanji are numbers that indicate the year.

http://www.japaneseswordindex.com/seki.htm Real name is Ogawa Kaichi (I think) 小川嘉市

I have seen this slogan on yosegaki flags from the war. It doesn't strike me as being weird, although it is the first time for me to see it on a sword. I guess the smith is Yoshimi Yasutsugu from Hokkaidō (from Ohmura's site). http://ohmura-study.net/025.html (search for 泰次 on that page and his name pops up).

赤心報國 = This is a WW2 or pre-WW2 era patriotic slogan. Sincere devotion to country

I was going for accuracy. 1603 is three years after the beginning of the 17th century.

I was looking through a book yesterday and I thought I'd found it with 殷　(後藤殷乗 - Gotō Injō), but the existing samples look nothing like the one here.

There was no Shogun at the beginning of the 17th century. The Ashikaga line lingered until the late 1500s, and then ended leaving a vacuum. Tokugawa (Ieyasu) grabbed the title for himself in 1603. Maybe you are thinking of someone else? Anyway, the mei on the sword doesn't mention any patron or benefactor or recipient. It just says it was made by Nobu-somebody (I agree it looks like Nobuaki). 肥刕隈本住藤原宣明 Hishū Kumamoto-ju Fujiwara Nobuaki

Second one is 戸松兼玄作　Tomatsu Kaneharu saku

Ōtsuki school deer menuki. Not the level of some of the excellent pieces in the thread, but you go with what ya got.

The far left line of the back of the Togo picture looks like 千代子姉 (from your older sister Chiyoko). The photo is dated November 23rd, Showa 13 (1938). So it could well be from Manchuria.

昭和十九 = 1944

Looking at this again, the year could be 昭和卅九 = 1964

朧銀地 容彫 無銘水戸 昭和廿九？？ 寒山誌（花押） Oborogin-chi (type of metal) Katachibori (style) Mumei Mito (unsigned - Mito) Showa 29? ?? (1954?) ??　　Not 100% sure of the date, and I can't figure out the final two kanji in that line. Kanzan (Shirusu) Kaō Outside of the box 巳目貫 Snake menuki

Hello George, The article you linked to regarding the law on hairstyles is slightly misleading, and it is a common misconception that this law abolished the topknot. The law actually stated that people were henceforth free to grow their hair in any way they choose. There would have been no rush to studios to get one's picture taken. (If there was a rush, it was just because photography was booming everywhere in the world at that time). Note that merchants, etc.. could also carry knives, such as the tantō in this picture, for protection. They could also have topknots, just in slightly different styles from the samurai. So the presence of these things doesn't preclude the possibility that the subject is from a non-samurai family. I think Uwe's photo above is quite good for showing the likely color scheme. I'm guessing the haori part of the kimono is dyed in ai-zome (藍染) style - indigo, basically. The tantō can be anything from the very garish to the understated. My guess from looking at the clothes is that the tantō would/should be a subtle shade: brown or black, rather than the vermilion or other colors one sometimes sees.

I see no numbers, no Boston, no America. Alas, the writing is too cursive for me to pick out anything anything beyond that. The vertical line on the far right might be construed as 米国 (America), but as Jean above mentioned, America would most likely have been written using different kanji in the 1870s.

Hello Simon, Not ignoring this thread, but you've got the best answer so far from Dojikiri above 後藤囗乗　（花押） I don't know what the 3rd kanji might be. 政 comes to mind, but I don't think this is correct. So many Gotō artists. Maybe someone else can pick it out.