mickie

Ok once again, so so so sorry I never saw any of these replies until this week!! I was so surprised and psyched to see them-I truly thought no one had replied. Thank you so much for filling in those holes in the translation, I was slowly losing my mind out of frustration...the knowledge and expertise you have all acquired about these swords and the languages is just mind-blowing and beyond impressive. I'm in the midst of trying to find a day to visit my uncle and get good pics of the blade (it's a five hour round-trip drive) and I'll be very excited to share those with everyone. I have some questions in the meantime though that I was hoping to get some help with? So the year of the cutting test is 1623 (thank you for confirming!!)-should it be assumed that this is the same year the sword was made since there's no other date inscribed? Or is it possible this test was done several years after? Are there any good resources out there that may have information about who the original owner, Kitami Samon, was? Or his family? As I understand it, only the super-wealthy could afford to pay for a test like this... If this is actually a 1st gen Kinmichi sword, how rare does that make it?? Thanks so much again in advance! -Mickie

Thank you so much, Curran and Bazza! I've always loved challenges-the harder the better. I have to admit though, I've had the luxury of time to immerse myself in this as I've been put on strict medical rest for a while-if I was still in school or working when my uncle showed me this sword, I would have just immediately asked for help haha. I will definitely post an update once I get those pics! Thanks again for all the help and support!

Wow, so first of all, my SINCEREST apologies to everyone who took the time to reply-I never received any notifications of this, so for the last several months I just thought no one had ever responded, and I decided to let it drop, and moved on to a different project. I only revisited this today, and was shocked to see all of your comments! Thank you so so much, all of you, for your help and support! The photos my uncle sent were pretty awful quality so I'm going to visit him soon and take some better ones myself haha. I will absolutely post them here after.

Hi there! My Aunt's dad apparently received this sword at the end of WWII from a Japanese officer while he was serving there, and I have been appointed the task of researching it. I know nothing about Japanese swords but I thought it would be a fun challenge. However I have already spent two weeks on this and I am desperate for some help. Firstly, I apologize for not knowing all of the Japanese terms for everything, I'm learning. *Some of the gold inlay had fallen out so I used a drawing app to fill in the missing parts on these photos. So far I believe it is saying "in the Autumn, leap 8th month of Genna", sooo like 1623-1624ish? However, I'm unsure of the era because the second kanji of what I think is Genna (元和) is written as 味, not 和. I am lost already. I could be sooo wrong about this, but I think the next kanji, 雒, is referring to Kyoto? It's an alternative form of 洛, which according to Wiktionary (I know, I know) is often used to refer to Kyoto. The next one, I have NO idea about. I've spent days hunting around. It looks like a trident. After that, I believe 䑓野重 is referring to Rendaino, an old cemetery established just north of Heian-kyō, famous partly for being the site of one of Miyamoto Musashi's battles. As for the rest of the line, I'm too burnt out to try, especially as I have no idea what that last character is. Please help?? And for the sword-smith, I recognize 伊賀守作 as Iga no Kami made, but isn't this only referring to the title of the sword-smith and not specifying who it actually is? Is this even real or am I wasting my time? Any help would be much appreciated! *Also I'm awaiting pics of the blade from my uncle. Thanks so much, Mickie