SteveM

If we can get a photo of the other side of that registration certificate, it will show you what the authorities thought the signature is.

Nanka Tōken Kai meeting tomorrow (Friday) October 10th at the Japanese Cultural Institute in Gardena, from 7:00pm to 9:00pm. Club Sensei Mike Yamasaki will not be attending, so there will be no specific topics. Bring your swords by if you would like to share with the group. If you have any swords or related items with Japanese inscriptions that you would like read/deciphered, bring them by and I will be happy to take a look. Gardena Valley JCI, 1964 W. 162nd Street, Gardena, CA 90247 Steve

Looks right to me.

✕弥生　→　初夏

Aritsune 有恒 Another example below https://www.tsuruginoya.com/mn1_3/b00085.html

Do you use Wakayama's reference? I guess its the most comprehensive one around, but a bit user unfriendly for non-Japanese speakers.It sounds like two different art names. Nobukuni doesn't sound like a typical surname.

The mark on the bottom says 宣徳 (Sentoku), which was originally a brass made in, and exported from, China. The word exists in Japan also, and the meaning is a bit more broadly applied to other types of brass. Judging from the decorations, I'd say this was Chinese.

Kishu Ishido?

無く also led me down a dead end, as I thought it was read as なく instead of むく.

おもひ切て 古ちら無く時 郭公 おもひきりて こちらむくとき ほととぎす I wonder if the cuckoo will sing in full voice, when he turns in my direction This is a tough one. 郭公 (hototogisu/cuckoo) is easy, but there are a lot of haiku that use this, and there are several alternative spellings, so there are lots of opportunities to get stuck. Anyway, if you could pick out 郭公, or at least the 郭 part, it gives a bit of a foothold (because the following kanji is almost assuredly going to be 公 due to it being rarely used for anything but this word). Plus, "hototogisu" is a 5-syllable word so that gives a bit of assurance that you are looking at a the last word of a haiku, which slightly helps sort out the preceding bits. I struggled for a while because I thought the first part was something-no-hana, so that led me down a few dead ends until I gave up that line of thought.

Maybe 玉雪刀 (Carved by Gyokusetsu). Gyokusetsu would be the artist's "art name".

I think Nick Komiya covered this term extensively over on the Warrelics site, but the search feature might be paywalled now. Anyway, ryakushiki (略式) means "simplified" or "informal". I'm not sure its an official type designation, or if it is sales talk. I don't think it is an official designation, but its out of my area of expertise.

I don't want to get too deep into the weeds, but in order to submit a sword for authentication by NBTHK, the sword must first be registered. In order for a sword to be registered, it has to be accepted as an art sword, and, in the case of Tokyo, the Tokyo metropolitan government specifies that a sword must be made of tamahagane to be accepted as an "art sword". https://www.kyoiku.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/lifelong/cultural_property/registration/registration_02_01 Now the guys at the Tokyo metropolitan government aren't stupid, and they will certainly accept old/antique swords that are made of nambantetsu, etc... But when it comes to wartime swords they have been less forgiving. As I have come to learn, however, interpretation of the sword registration laws can vary depending on the prefecture. I do believe that most prefectures will follow the Tōkyō standards. But, as always, accommodations are made for exceptional pieces. Lately, this wiggle room seems to be expanding. If your sword can be registered, it can be submitted to shinsa. I think most prefectures will reject it, unless you can make an exceptionally strong case for your sword to be considered an art sword.

Katsuteru 勝照 Same smith as the one in this thread.

享保十年乙巳 Kyōhō 10 (1725) Year of the snake.

She has misread these two; 只雁 should be 隻履, which is part of the 4-character Buddhist idiom I mentioned. 歸 is the old form of 帰, which is the one used here in this scroll.

Left side looks like 二号 (Number 2). Right side: maybe a name, maybe a specification for a type of material. The top one is 本 (Moto), which is often used in surnames, but also can mean "true" or "genuine". The kanji on the bottom is too unclear to make it out.

Yours is a replica of an image drawn by Daikyū Sōkyū (1468-1549), which I think is/was property of Zuigan-ji (瑞厳比之大休筆寫) https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/大休宗休 The writing alludes to the Bodhidaruma's return to India with one shoe (隻履西帰), but I'm not sure of the preceding bits. The final four kanji are an idiom meaning "getting better little by little" 漸入佳境".

Upcoming Nanka Tōken Kai Meeting this Friday (September 12th). Club sensei Mike Yamasaki will be discussing kinkō fittings. Meeting starts from 7:00pm at the Japanese Cultural Institute of Gardena. Feel free to drop in, even if you are not a member - there is no charge to attend the meeting. But if you eventually decide to become a member, the annual membership fee is $45. This meeting will be about fittings, but feel free to bring a sword along if you have one. I will be at the meeting as well, so if you have any documents or items with Japanese writing on them, and you would like to know what they say, I will be happy to take a look. Japanese Cultural Institute Gardena Valley JCI, 1964 W. 162nd Street, Gardena, CA 90247

There's nothing on the other side of that habaki? I can only take a guess at the meaning (employing a superficial word-for-word translation, which are usually wildly inaccurate). The ringing of the steadily-pounding hammers And before me Like autumn clouds The water (mist?) rising from the white-hot metal But...it doesn't seem very poetic, unless its a bit taken from some classic text that I don't know about.

It not so much an implied sound, rather its a definite ハ after 夜, thus giving that first line 5 syllables. 秋の夜ハ　 Aki no yo wa 唐まで月の Kara made tsuki no 外と又 Soto to mata

Then maybe the very last one is 部 (something like 情報部)?

I think the collaborator is indeed Murata Kōkoku. I'm looking at some of his seals, and he's got one very similar to the one on this scroll. (see below and at http://inkan-search.net/search/detail.php?id=50 ). The content of the text... a bit more challenging. I can only pick out words here and there, and these without much confidence 香、都、京、時

Pretty close. The address on the card (Shiba-ku, Takanawadai-machi #32) isn't there anymore, and it is now located somewhere in Minato-ku Takanawa 1 (near Takanawa Gateway station). Must be a really old card, because the phone numbers haven't looked like that since early 1960s, maybe? I can't read any of the handwriting. Maybe the 3rd is 石 (stone) and maybe the last is 卸 (wholesale).

This one (below) is the one that made the sword in this post. Sakai Katsutoshi = Sakō Kaneshige. Sakai Katsutoshi is his birth/real name, and his swordsmith name is Sakō Kaneshige.