Questions about recently acquired blades.

[bismarck5]

Hi all,

I just received a 3 new swords from my grandfather, two wakizashi and one katana. One of the wakizashi's has a relatively easy to read signature but I can only figure out the first three characters, Bizen Kuni, I believe. The rest I am having a hard time with. The other two have very hard to read signatures as it seems that someone decided to try and clean the tang in the past so they are basically unreadable. I would appreciate help with the rest of the translation for the one wakizashi and any information that you can come up with about the other two, they look like nice blades so I hope that there is some redeeming quality about them.

Thanks

Cheers

Karl Biggs

[SwordGuyJoe]

I could be (probably am) wrong, but the first pic might be Bishu Kuni Ju Osafune Morimitsu.

 

http://www.sho-shin.com/oei.htm

 

Edit: not sure on "Mori"

[John A Stuart]

1) as Joe says, although Bizen no Kuni. I thought Moritada though. Can't read the others. John

[Gabriel L]

For the benefit of Karl, the comments by Joe & John (and double checked by me, not that that matters) yield the following:

 

備前國住長船盛光

Bizen no kuni jū Osafune Morimitsu

Morimitsu (an Osafune smith), resident of Bizen province.

 

This is slightly odd in that the Osafune Morimitsu I am finding in the popular reference lists are all listed with the Bishū 備州 form of Bizen in their signature. I'd want to look more carefully at this line before concluding anything but just remember that gimei (false signatures) are common in antiques.

 

All three swords are genuine antique nihontō. It is not possible to assess their ultimate quality from these photos, and in their current condition (out of polish) it is doubtful that more photos would help. Still, if you want to try, I suggest you take a look at this guide I wrote.

 

I would recommend you take them to a sword club or show (San Francisco in August, Philadelphia in October, Tampa in February, etc.) to have people look at them in person and give their opinions as to restorability, latent quality, etc.

 

Regards,

 

—G.

 

P.S. I can't make out the other signature either.

[bismarck5]

Thanks all for the responses it helps a lot. I'll definitely bring these into my local sword club so that they can have a look at them, but I like to have some idea of what I have before going in and getting their help, always counts to be prepared :D .

Thanks again,

Karl

 

edit~ and thanks for the photo guide Gabriel

[bismarck5]

I tried to edit the photo of the second wakazashi and this is what I came up with. The middle character appears to be Kuni? The top and the bottom characters still appear to illegible unless I am missing something??

Am I correct or at least close?

-Karl

[SwordGuyJoe]

Kunihisa