Honjo Masamune found!! (well almost... maybe)

[Brian]

If the debate is between Mejiro and Meijiro..I am pretty sure they are the same, just different spelling. The incorrect one was Meguro.

Pm a mod to add something pertinent anyone...

 

Brian

[Brian]

Topic tentatively opened for someone who wants to clarify and add some questions.

[ROKUJURO]

It is
 

Mejiro Police Station

• 目白警察署

  Tokyo / Toshima-Ku / Police Station

 
MEI = different KANJI

 

[Brian]

I had a language fundi who wanted to clarify an extract taken from the docs presented.
Awaiting his input. And it is not about the name of the area, that is sorted.

[Baka Gaijin]

Please excuse this posting if it is stating the obvious, but it only occurred to me yesterday and I thought it worth including for other dullards like me.

 

Mejiro/Meguro

 

This is I believe may be a clue to one of the anomalies being a Gaijin Phonetic mishearing:

 

Mejiro|Meguro can sound similar if you are not tuned into Tokyo Ben (Dialect)東京弁.

 

Mejiro and variations 目白 literally White Eye

 

Meguro and variations 目黒 literally Black Eye

 

Mejiro is in Toshima ward https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toshima

 

Meguro is a ward of it own as well as a station area https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meguro

 

Mejiro and Meguro are miles apart and transport there would have been difficult in the immediate Occupation period.

 

A native Japanese would be unlikely to make that Phonetic mistake I believe, as they would both understand the Kanji and the intonation between Mejiro/Meguro.

 

To add a grain to the mix on Mejiro / Meijiro.

 

I think it is merely a phonetic anomaly similar to the example I cited above.

 

And before the "Cool Japan Otaku" catch a drift of this, yes,we know Meijirō is the mascot of Meijii University...........(since 2010).

 

Cheers

[Astyanaz]

Possibly someone should go through all the possible names in the whole military unit and delete the ones that it could not be, then study the rest.

[Gabriel L]

Possibly someone should go through all the possible names in the whole military unit and delete the ones that it could not be, then study the rest.

 

As in, the military unit "Cody Bimore" was part of? That would be grand if those records exist, but they don't, seeing as how they burned in a warehouse fire (IIRC).

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

This is for John Stuart.

it seems the soldier that took the sword was part of the 7th US cavalry,

​In the Samurai Archives board there is an officer commander of a squadron of M1 Abrahms deployed in the DMZ of the 7th and it was a very active member (or at least it was when I participated).

Maybe he have access to lists of names and dates we're not aware of ? I was absent for too many years from the board and likely he doesn't remember me but maybe you can try to ask him.

[Rutroth]

Just found an interesting article. Not sure if it helps. It talks about who he thinks is Sgt. Coldy Bimore. http://ericwrites.com/?p=500

[John A Stuart]

I remember that woman researcher and I directed her to various sources. Too bad it died on the vine. John

[Bandito]

 Coldy Bimore  == Cole D.B. Moore

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/94863753

[Brian]

Nope. He's been looked at. He also wasn't Cole. Just D.B Moore.
 

[Stephen]

didnt someone try to say D B Cooper was in on it.....this ol story ...lol 

[vajo]

Jackson -> Bill Carson -> Arch Stanton at least it is in the grave with no name...

 

 

 

It could be overall in the world.

 

I bought a NCO sword from a female over dhd24. Mostley trash there and no one cares about the sword. Very bad pictures. I wrote a mail and ask for the sword. She said if no one buys it she throw that damned thing in the litter box. I asked her for pictures and was unsure if it was legit. After getting some very good advice here in the board i bought it for 400 EUR. A few days later i recieved that sword and it was in very good condition. On the end of the saya was a long number writen with a pencil. I asked her again and she said her father was working at the US Army Base in Heidelberg. As she was a little girl in the 1950s he father brought that sword at home as he comes back from work. In the lunch break he playes often a round of poker with some soldiers in the "Fahrbereitschaft" and she think he won it. 

 

I thought that these number is a enlisted service no. I asked on the enlisted database for this no. and the soldier who has this no. was a PFC serviced in the USAAF. He was in Heidelberg after the war. He was born 1926 and died 2013. His grave is on the Miramar national cementary. Why i wrote this? I dont know but i had the bad or good feeling that the sword could be pop up on a local web market somewhere in the world and no one could care about it. Maybe it look likes junk as the condition could be bad. Who will take notice of that sword?

[TheMaskedBoi]

So um yeah it’s probably just wishful thinking but opinions on the Hamon line compared with that of The Honjo Masamune, and I was wondering if someone could translate the Japanese Characters on the blade I know from research that the 2 furthest from the Tang where traditionally used by Japanese sword smiths and mean 0 Cut and Water but I’m afraid that’s the extent of my Japanese, and leads me to an interesting hypothesis, what are the chances if it is indeed the Honjo that before the blade was referred to as the Honjo Masamune a name it was given in honor of one of the many great hero’s who wielded it of the around a millennia since it was forged, what if original it had and was given a different name, and is in fact 2 legendary Masamune blades in one. What I’m proposing is this What if the Honjo and the Yawarakai-Te are one in the same, and the Yawarakai-Te was just later renamed the Honjo Masamune.

[TheMaskedBoi]

Oh and the blade when I found it wasn’t in its koshirae, so didn’t look like a traditional katana as one might imagine instead when I found it it was in its daisho, Japanese sword storage mounts (shirasaya) for katana. Indicating that it isnt a reproduction but instead is or was an important family blade passed down for generations, vs. one of the many blades mass produced for Japanese soldiers during WWII. Honestly that’s not the reason I purchased it though ironically for $60 at an antique shop, I won’t tell you where, Honestly it sounds really weird but there was something about it, I’d honestly had no intentions of buying anything when I went into the shop, but there was just something about that blade that called out to me and so I bought it, and youll all giggle at this buckled it into my passangers seat and drove home with it there listening to “A Game of Thrones” audio book on my way home, and then would lay there in bed with it Unsheath at home for hours as listening to the rest of “A song of Ice & Fire” audio books, and playing Skyrim, as it sat there laying on my satin sheets never once snagging or damaging them in any way, drinking in the sunlight through the windows on the weekends and the warmth from the fire in the woodstove that i used to heat the place i was living at the time. I dont know how to describe it but its almost like the blade has a life and sole of its own and we bonded and befriended each other over those first months, honestly whenever its with me its like im never alone but sitting there with an old friend, its almost like a constant tender loving hug, amd if it is infact the Yawarakai-Te i can attest to how aptly named the blade is, Yawarakai-Te in english means “Tender Hands”

[Ray Singer]

The sword you shared is unfortunately a Chinese fake. This will help you understand why I am saying that and what to look for in identifying fakes.

 

http://jssus.org/nkp/fake_japanese_swords.html

[raaay]

I agree with Ray 100% fake from what I can see, sorry !

[Brian]

Go easy guys.

[Stephen]

MaskedBoi please sign your post per board rules

[TheMaskedBoi]

Normaly i would be inclined to agree, if it werent for 5 condititions, 1) the blades your used to seeing have been well maintained and cared for which is why they have mainted their relatively flawless surfacess, and have been oiled regularly to prevent moister from causing delamination of the blade surface due to moister where as mine hasnt been oiled since WWII if it is the blade or ever if it itsnt , 2) the blade is forged from damascus steel verses Machine punched steel, 3) the fact that it is mounted in a storage mount verses being mounted for use, 4) the pin holding rhe blade into the mount is made of gold not brass iron silver tin or other Metal, 5) hamon lines are as unique to each blade as a fingerprint is to you or me, and impossible to replicate. And i appologise for not signing im brand new to the site.

[vajo]

MaskedBoi can you show us the hole sword?

 

Its hard to see, but i doubt from the picture it is a nihonto.

[TheMaskedBoi]

Oh, and it helps that i didnt buy it online it was covered in a fine layer of dust in a displaycase athe the very back of an antique shop not far from DC

[TheMaskedBoi]

Honestly i almost got a bronze vase instead the seller had it marked Ming Dynasty but it was actualy to the trained eye a 600 years older Tang Dynasty urn that was missing tge lid, Art history is a pation of mine, ive been offered and declined a fellowship at the national gallery here in DC.

[TheMaskedBoi]

I will next time i make it up to my grandfathers, I put it in his safe for safe keeping when i came to DC seriously im 23 and dont trust my friends enough not to play nija with it in the house

[vajo]

I think the Kanji reads. "masa jojo eita taira ichi akio"

 

But the direction is false.

 

[Jean]

And you still did not sign your post with your first name ...how do you want us to keep this Board friendly if you cannot call a member by his first name...

[TheMaskedBoi]

I just pulled this from the Masamune website the first 2 kanji masamune something something sword and then i already know the final two kanji wjere used by sword smiths and are 0 cut & water

 

-Trent

 

I think the Kanji reads. "masa jojo eita taira ichi akio"

 

But the direction is false.

 

kanjj.jpg

[TheMaskedBoi]

Masamune’s family is still making swords his 27th great grandson is the latest master sword smith in his family line

[TheMaskedBoi]

Um so it depending on the kanji and there meaning in the 1300’s it would literally translate as “water no cut sword big tender Masamune”