templar44 Posted June 4, 2014 Report Posted June 4, 2014 The omote is signed "Yukihira saku" which is 99.9 gimei. Unless it is a long lost Hosho smith who is unrecorded. However I think these kanji may have been original. I can not decipher them at all. Any help would be appreciated. I added a photo of the blade for those who wished to see the overall blade. Thanks for your time, Tony Martin Quote
Gabriel L Posted June 4, 2014 Report Posted June 4, 2014 Could the second kanji be 守 ? And the last reminds me of 房 but I am sure that is wrong… Quote
Ed Harbulak Posted June 4, 2014 Report Posted June 4, 2014 Hi Tony, I used to own this blade and don't believe it was made by the famous Bungo Yukihira so probably isn't a gimei of him. My own research led me to think it was either one of the Naminohira smiths from Satsuma who worked in the Yamato tradition and signed Yukihira or else a Yamato smith. There were several smiths who used the Yukihira name even into the 1800's, so consider one of them rather than Bungo Yukihira. As for the ura, I showed it to a couple other collectors who are fluent in Japanese and the only character they could make out was the one legible kanji which means city. I'd also like to know what the omote side says. Good luck, Quote
templar44 Posted June 5, 2014 Author Report Posted June 5, 2014 Forgot to sign the post. Tony Martin and Tony Martin for this one :D Quote
Bugyotsuji Posted June 6, 2014 Report Posted June 6, 2014 Showed this to my respected sword teacher here in Japan and he says the characters are reminiscent of gobbledy-gook characters he has seen inserted by people over on the mainland. Quote
templar44 Posted June 6, 2014 Author Report Posted June 6, 2014 Thanks Piers. The blade is good and was just hoping this might shed some light as far as pinning down where it was made. Thanks for your effort. Tony Martin Quote
Bugyotsuji Posted June 6, 2014 Report Posted June 6, 2014 Many thanks for the pics, Tony. (My PM box is always full) Sorry, I should have said that he was talking only about the characters and had no complaints about the blade itself! Quote
Marius Posted June 6, 2014 Report Posted June 6, 2014 Showed this to my respected sword teacher here in Japan and he says the characters are reminiscent of gobbledy-gook characters he has seen inserted by people over on the mainland. Piers, they look like there were cut on the nakago a long time ago... Not questioning your sword teacher, of course Quote
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