Tang Translation

[Pauln93]

Hi,

Just recently acquired another gendaito. Would the signature (picture attached) be the same as 纐纈 兼上 (Kanekami)

 

Thanks for helping me

[Stephen]

yes

btw if you ever polish this please show, think it will look great.

[Pauln93]

The hamon looks to be very active so I took a bet on this. I'm crossing my fingers that no flaws will show up....I'm thinking Chris Osborne or Hofhine for polish but I'm not sure yet

[SwordGuyJoe]

This is likely your guy:

兼上 (Kanekami)

 

交告 源三郎

 

 

 

 

http://www.japaneseswordindex.com/seki.htm

[Pauln93]

I can't find other examples of his sword so it felt weird that he only signed his last name

[SwordGuyJoe]

In WWII there were many undocumented smiths, so this should not be concerning

[Pauln93]

Yeah he's not on Hawley but on this page http://www.jp-sword.com/files/seki/gendaito.html he's rated jo saku and won first seat so i'm trying to dig more info

[george trotter]

Hi Paul,

I used to have a blade by this man (if they are the same...my jiri was different). A good gendaito, although I thought the hamon looked a bit "weak". Yours looks very strong and clear.

I attach a rubbing, although it is hard to see the mei, It is signed:

Noshu Seki Ju Gensaburo Kanekami Saku. (I think that is the reading). The chiselling is very fine.

If they are the same man he was Koketsu Gensaburo Kanekami. He was registered at Seki on Sho 15 year July 25th. I have him listed as RJT but I don't know where I got that from. Mine was in Navy mounts.

Hope this helps,

[Pauln93]

I assume he's koketsu kanekami since it's the only kanekami i find with the kanji like that.

[k morita]

Hi all,

 

兼上 is pronounced not as Kanekami but as Kanetaka(Ka-ne-ta-ka).

[Stephen]

Morita san

can be both ways, in this case its kami

 

http://search.freefind.com/find.html?si ... y=kanekami

[Brian]

I can find him listed as both.

Morita san, you had him pronounced as Kanekami way back:

http://www.nihontomessageboard.com/nmb/ ... 29&start=0

But Kanetaka is also used:

https://www.google.co.za/?gfe_rd=cr&ei= ... 2&safe=off

I guess either is correct. That is assuming this smith is the same as Koketsu Kanekami/Kanetaka?

 

Brian

[k morita]

Hi,

 

OMG!

I will correct the past posting, Not Kanekami,but Kanetaka.

 

Atached pic below is Honma's Nihonto Meikan.

He has pronounced this two kanji characters(兼上) as Kanetaka.

[Brian]

Thank you Morita san. The old post cannot be edited anymore, but I have made the change myself.

 

Brian

[k morita]

Thank you Brian. :D

[Stephen]

Well Paul it looks like you got a better sword than you thought.

[george trotter]

Hi Morita san,

I had his name as Kanetaka also (see oshigata) but somehow I changed it to kami. I see in the page (Nihonto Meikan p.148) he is RJT.

Thanks for your correction.

Hi Paul, Yes looks like a good find.

Regards,

[cabowen]

We should not ignore the possibility that Homma Sensei's Meikan does not always list the correct reading for a smith's name. Many times (most perhaps), as we have seen here, there is more than one reading for a kanji. Sometimes the only way to know absolutely which reading is correct is from first hand information from the smith or his family. I have come across this a few times; for example, Kato Masakuni 真国, which can be read also as Sanekuni, is listed on page 382 under the Sanekuni reading, with the Masakuni reading underneath. The correct reading, as I have been told by three of his relatives (two were nephews that worked with him) is in fact Masakuni. This is something that bears keeping in mind.

[Pauln93]

I do wish there's more information on the various RJT, especially since they're the main smiths producing nihonto during that time period and some can be quite exceptional.

[Pauln93]

So the sword came in today. Everything Looks good but the blade definitely needs a polish. Fist gunto mount I have that the lock is still perfectly tight and working. An interesting thing is that both the nagako and nagasa is not a perfect fit onto the mount with both being shorter (It's a short blade at just a tad over 24'). Is this a common thing since the koshirae are standarized and mass produced?

 

Dated november 1944 I think

 

Pictures here: http://imgur.com/a/OnqcP

 

So in the end, is koketsu kanekami and koketsu kanetaka the same person and the pronunciation is just different?

 

On this page(http://www.japaneseswordindex.com/seki.htm) it has the signature as being kanekami but koketsu kanetaka also exists as well so it's a tad confusing.