saipan59

...and, Robinson's book is wrong - he shows the NiJuu kanji missing the bottom horizontal stroke. Pete

You're reading the year-number wrong - it is 20, not 21 (using the old-style kanji, as you mentioned). Pete

It is Hira. The alternate slant of the strokes in "Hira" is OK - it can be written either way, according to my "5 styles" kanji dictionary. Note that the oshigata from Tokunou is the same. Pete

Doesn't seem likely that someone would carve the horizontal stroke in such a 'vertical' way, but who knows... Either way, if it's a number, then there's nothing else to learn from it - it's just a number. As George said, it would be very helpful to see the habaki, if indeed the same two kanji are written on it - it might become clear what we are looking at. Pete

We're pretty sure it's not an "8". But it's not a very good "9" either... It could be a non-numeric kanji that has been simplified badly (such that it is now only clear to someone who already knew what it said). Pete

My guess is "BU NO 94". A possible interpretation is "#94, produced for the military". This would sorta fit given that the habaki has the same "94" on it - it would be like an "assembly number", as found on the various main parts of a Japanese military firearm. But I could be wrong... Pete

I think it's "Suwa" not "Suya". I used to have a Yasukuni (Yasumitsu, last known to be owned by Chris Bowen) with this mark on the tsuba. Pete

Here's my guess: Sengoku-jidai (pre-Edo, 1500's). Shinogi-zukuri. But I could be completely wrong... Pete

Hi, As many of you may know, the ToShoW database files are on a "Geocities" site. I wrote ToShoW years ago, with a lot of help from my wife and others in entering the data. Looking in this forum, it appears that a bunch of folks still use it - cool! And I just discovered that it actually runs under Windows Vista (until today, I had not run ToShoW myself for several years)! But the free Geocities sites are going away soon. So, ToShoW needs a new home. Where would be the best place? Perhaps Rich Stein's site (he has a link to it)? Or the JSSUS site? I'm looking for a volunteer - I'm not interested in setting up anything myself. Regards, Pete McCollum

Hi All, I've been 'inactive' in the Nihonto world for some years now, but I see some familiar names. Around 15-20 years ago, I wrote a couple of articles for the JSSUS Newsletter. And I'm the author of the "ToShoW" database - some of you may remember it... I remember when Jeff Harshman and I used to drive to Denver for the Colorado Token Kai meetings in Sakura Square, back when Dr. Takahashi and Gary Montgomery were still with us. Regards, Pete McCollum