TheMaskedBoi

Um so it depending on the kanji and there meaning in the 1300’s it would literally translate as “water no cut sword big tender Masamune”

Masamune’s family is still making swords his 27th great grandson is the latest master sword smith in his family line

I just pulled this from the Masamune website the first 2 kanji masamune something something sword and then i already know the final two kanji wjere used by sword smiths and are 0 cut & water -Trent

I will next time i make it up to my grandfathers, I put it in his safe for safe keeping when i came to DC seriously im 23 and dont trust my friends enough not to play nija with it in the house

Honestly i almost got a bronze vase instead the seller had it marked Ming Dynasty but it was actualy to the trained eye a 600 years older Tang Dynasty urn that was missing tge lid, Art history is a pation of mine, ive been offered and declined a fellowship at the national gallery here in DC.

Oh, and it helps that i didnt buy it online it was covered in a fine layer of dust in a displaycase athe the very back of an antique shop not far from DC

Normaly i would be inclined to agree, if it werent for 5 condititions, 1) the blades your used to seeing have been well maintained and cared for which is why they have mainted their relatively flawless surfacess, and have been oiled regularly to prevent moister from causing delamination of the blade surface due to moister where as mine hasnt been oiled since WWII if it is the blade or ever if it itsnt , 2) the blade is forged from damascus steel verses Machine punched steel, 3) the fact that it is mounted in a storage mount verses being mounted for use, 4) the pin holding rhe blade into the mount is made of gold not brass iron silver tin or other Metal, 5) hamon lines are as unique to each blade as a fingerprint is to you or me, and impossible to replicate. And i appologise for not signing im brand new to the site.

Oh and the blade when I found it wasn’t in its koshirae, so didn’t look like a traditional katana as one might imagine instead when I found it it was in its daisho, Japanese sword storage mounts (shirasaya) for katana. Indicating that it isnt a reproduction but instead is or was an important family blade passed down for generations, vs. one of the many blades mass produced for Japanese soldiers during WWII. Honestly that’s not the reason I purchased it though ironically for $60 at an antique shop, I won’t tell you where, Honestly it sounds really weird but there was something about it, I’d honestly had no intentions of buying anything when I went into the shop, but there was just something about that blade that called out to me and so I bought it, and youll all giggle at this buckled it into my passangers seat and drove home with it there listening to “A Game of Thrones” audio book on my way home, and then would lay there in bed with it Unsheath at home for hours as listening to the rest of “A song of Ice & Fire” audio books, and playing Skyrim, as it sat there laying on my satin sheets never once snagging or damaging them in any way, drinking in the sunlight through the windows on the weekends and the warmth from the fire in the woodstove that i used to heat the place i was living at the time. I dont know how to describe it but its almost like the blade has a life and sole of its own and we bonded and befriended each other over those first months, honestly whenever its with me its like im never alone but sitting there with an old friend, its almost like a constant tender loving hug, amd if it is infact the Yawarakai-Te i can attest to how aptly named the blade is, Yawarakai-Te in english means “Tender Hands”

So um yeah it’s probably just wishful thinking but opinions on the Hamon line compared with that of The Honjo Masamune, and I was wondering if someone could translate the Japanese Characters on the blade I know from research that the 2 furthest from the Tang where traditionally used by Japanese sword smiths and mean 0 Cut and Water but I’m afraid that’s the extent of my Japanese, and leads me to an interesting hypothesis, what are the chances if it is indeed the Honjo that before the blade was referred to as the Honjo Masamune a name it was given in honor of one of the many great hero’s who wielded it of the around a millennia since it was forged, what if original it had and was given a different name, and is in fact 2 legendary Masamune blades in one. What I’m proposing is this What if the Honjo and the Yawarakai-Te are one in the same, and the Yawarakai-Te was just later renamed the Honjo Masamune.