John C

Looks like the 5 ray patrolman sword, style 1. Not sure if the rayskin handle denotes a different rank. Is the backstrap made of copper? John C.

Okay. One I have recorded already. Thanks, John C.

Thomas: In post #9 of that same thread, there is a Meiji 25 shown. Do you recall if the whole sword has been shown anywhere? John C.

Thank you, Moriyama-san. I can see TAKE now that you point it out. John C.

Here is an article by T.C. Ford that outlines some of the characteristics of a retempered blade. Since you have the blade in hand, walk through his points and look carefully at the blade. You may or may not find some of those characteristics. Also, he estimates that 10 percent of the blades in the US are retempered, so there is a 90 percent chance it is not! John C. retempered blades.pdf

Interesting that the blade is made in a similar fashion as a kogatana, with the flat back and single beveled cutting edge on front. John C.

Thanks Piers: Those diagonal lines are really deep so difficult to align, I imagine. But I wouldn't expect a smith to carve his mei in them without leaving a blank spot. You can barely see it without the right angle. John C.

Hello: I've tried to research this "mei", however no luck. The first kanji looks like masa, however there is a stroke or two at the very top so not sure. Could also be go (number 5)?? Second kanji could be ichi or kazu Third character may be a kao?? The mei was carved into diagonal marks and is really hard to see. I tried to get 4 different light angles. Thank you for looking, John C.

Thank you, it helped a lot. I responded to the PM. John C.

Joe: Does the Shinkai Daikan show how Inoue Shinkai wrote his dates? John C.

I had trouble in SoCal yesterday and today, which is unusual for me. Had to clear my cache to get the site to load. John C.

Without seeing the blade, there is at least one sign that "points" to it being fake. Look closely at the mei. You'll notice all of the characters have rounded ends on the strokes. This is clearly made by a rotary tool. If you see that, you know immediately it is fake. John C.

A couple of tips for reading dates: * if the number comes before the 10 (+) it is multiplied; after the + it's added. So, 二 (ni) 十 (ju) 三 (san) would be 23. You often see ni ju on swords for 1945. * Sometimes older forms of numbers are used, for example the current number 3 三 and the obsolete number 3 參 * There are also numerous ways of espressing the date, for example Koki ni sen roku hyaku nen indicates year 2600, or 1940; on occasion, you'll see the word sho 正 used to indicate January; you may even see just seasons, usually spring 春 and autumn 秋; and once in a while the Chinese calendar is used. So if you find yourself stuck on a date, try one of these other ways and see if you can get it. John C.

John: Just for your records, here is a breakdown of the kanji. Note that the 1 (ichi) is shaped kind of like a bent arrow. Very typical for mei. John C.

Appears to be January, 1943. There is no day listed. John C. p.s. Not necessarily high ranking officer. Could just be a family with a lot of money.

The fugurine of the lady is wearing a Manchu hairstyle and carrying a water pipe, both popular around mid 19th century. Not sure if it's period or if the style is copied later. John C.

Thank you, B.J. At least I know my thinking isn't going to work. Back to the rote memorization... John C.

Thanks, Mark. Just ordered it! John C.

That was one of the characters that got me interested. Looking at Sesko's stroke count, Kane is 10. But I count more than 10 small strokes on those examples. I was thinking that if I didn't recognize a character, I could count the strokes and go from there. But that only works if they use the same number of strokes regardless of how they actually form the character. John C.

When deciphering a mei that is not written in standard form, but rather in some stylish or abbreviated fashion, do the number of strokes usually stay the same? For example, the 3 pictured are variations of the one in the bottom right corner. Would they all have the same stroke count even though written differently? Thank you for looking, John C.

Not a WW2 blade. POSSIBLY an older family blade. John C.

Not sure about the mei: Kane...toshi (?). 1943. John C.

Rob: I guess you could just define their characteristics: dark, so not recent; triangular shaped, so struck with or against sharp metal object; and located along the shinogi. But other than that, it's anyones guess. John C.

Darren: I can't read the cursive, however the dashes on top of each line is the number 1, meaning "item." And the first kanji on the top right is Ko for small. So if I had to guess, I would say a list of parts? I know it isn't helpful. But wanted to get you started. John C.

Not so much a theory as a consideration. Many yari were made as pikes, not spears. I could see where one would not want their pike to get stuck in armor or a horse during a cavalry charge. So having a blunt tip would make sense. The force of the charge hitting a stationary blade would do the damage. John C.