xiayang

Here's one side: 備前長船秋水子祐直六十二歲作 = made by Bizen Osafune Shūsuishi Sukenao at the age of 62 文政十三年正月三日 = on the third day of the first month of Bunsei 13 (1830 CE) This is his entry in Markus Sesko's Swordsmiths of Japan:

日置藤原兼次作 (因幡) = Heki Fujiwara Kanetsugu saku (Inaba) 慶応四年二月吉日 = on an auspicious day of the second month of Keiō 4 (1868 CE)

The smith's name is 義次 = Yoshitsugu

Hi Paul, Your sword is signed 福本兼宗 = Fukumoto Kanemune He was a WW2 era smith. Are there any stamps on the nakago?

Left: 光弘作 = Mitsuhiro saku Right: 政随 = Shōzui

無 – see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu_(negative) 學人轉身處 會麼口取 – (This appears to be some sort of Zen phrase. I'm afraid I am not familiar enough with the mysteries of Zen Buddhism to attempt a meaningful translation.) 欠伸子書 = written by Kenshinshi (one of Kōgetsu Sōgan's pseudonyms)

長陽 = Chōyō, an alternative name for Nagato province X城: This one's tricky, but let me speculate a bit: I suspect the first character is a variant form of 灞 (see here; not quite an exact match, but very close). If we go with that, the reading would be Ha-jō – perhaps a reference to Hagi castle (Hagi-jō 萩城)? 知清彫 = carved by Masakiyo

筑後柳河住久廣 = Chikugo Yanagawa-jū Hisahiro

應羽室廣静需 = responding to Hamuro Hirose's request

This is a poem titled 遊江 (A cruise on the river) by Tang dynasty poet Pei Qingyu (裴慶餘): 滿額鵝黃金縷衣， 翠翹浮動玉釵垂。 從教水濺羅裙濕， 知是巫山行雨歸。 I won't attempt a translation myself, as translating poetry is really hard and my meagre skills would inevitably butcher the elegance of the original. I'll leave you with a couple of machine translations. Neither of them are very good, but they will give you a rough idea what it's about: DeepL: A golden-threaded gown adorns her full-faced beauty, Emerald hairpins sway as jade hairpins dangle. Let the water splash her silk skirt, She knows it's the rain returning from Mount Wu. Google Translate: Her forehead is adorned with a robe embroidered with goose-gold threads, Her jade hairpins dangle and flutter. Let the water splash and wet her silk skirt, I know she is returning from a rainy day at Wushan.

These are two phrases that originate from the Zhuangzi (莊子) and are related to the Daoist concept of the spirit. A rough literal translation would be something along the lines of 萬物服 = all things submit 一心㝎 = a stable heart and soul

露木覺[所?]持 = owned by Tsuyuki Satoru[?] 昭和十乙亥歲十一月吉日 = on an auspicious day in November of Shōwa 10, year of the wood pig (1935 CE)

庒内住 = resident of Shōnai 行年六十八翁 = old man of 68 years 岡田雅哉 (花押) = Okada Masaya (kaō)

It's not Chinese. The document looks really weird. With a few exceptions (like the title 鑑定書), the "characters" are either completely unreadable or sort of resemble real Hanzi/Kanji, but not getting them quite right. I suspect it's AI-generated slop.

I thought this might be of interest: The Kasuga Taisha Museum in Nara currently has a special exhibition titled "Appreciating Beauty of Swords", where they've got all six of their National Treasure sword fittings (along with a number of other impressive items, including several Heian-era blades and a massive ōdachi) on display. The exhibition will run until the 19th of April, and is well worth a visit if you happen to be in the area. Unfortunately photography was not allowed, but they do have pictures and descriptions of at least some of the items on their website, so here's a little preview: https://kokuhouden.kasugataisha.or.jp/en/e9/ https://kokuhouden.kasugataisha.or.jp/en/e19/ https://kokuhouden.kasugataisha.or.jp/en/e16/ https://kokuhouden.kasugataisha.or.jp/en/e14/

伊賀守源包道 = Iga no Kami Minamoto Kanemichi

昭和拾乙亥歲三月吉日 = on an auspicious day in March of Shōwa 10, year of the wood pig 渡邊來助所持 = owned by Watanabe Raisuke

Hi Gary, Neither of these blades are Japanese-made – however, they nonetheless appear to be high-quality replicas. The inscription on the wakizashi is 大耳 = Ōmimi; indicating that it was made by Howard Clark. The other image is rather low-resolution and I can't read all of it: 應武[?][?]朝波作於大連 = ???? Chaobo made this in Dalian Chaobo (朝波) is the given name of Paul Chen – a Chinese maker of Japanese-style swords.

荘司筑前大掾大慶藤直胤 = Shōji Chikuzen Daijō Taikei Fuji Naotane 天保八年仲秋 = mid-autumn of Tenpō 8 (1837 CE)

濃州関住兼松作 = Nōshū Seki-jū Kanematsu saku

Indeed. 長谷部兼隆 = Hasebe Kanetaka His entry in Markus Sesko's Swordsmiths of Japan:

濃州関住正行作 = Nōshū Seki-jū Masayuki saku (probably Miwa Masayuki, 三輪正行) 昭和十七年四月日 = on a day in April of Shōwa 17 (1942 CE)

備後三次住田村正行作 = Bingo Miyoshi-jū Tamura Masayuki saku (made by Tamura Masayuki, resident of Miyoshi in Bingo province)

Fuchi: 乙柳軒 味墨 = Otsuryûken Miboku Tantō: 城慶子正明 = Jōkeishi Masaaki 慶應二年八月日 = on a day in the eighth month of Keiō 2 (1866 CE)

濃州住井戸秀俊作之 = made by Ido Hidetoshi, resident of Nōshū