Help With Identifying A Location

[Mark]

I have a daito, I read the makers name as Chikashige (please correct me if wrong), but I am having trouble with the rest of the mei, can anyone offer some help

 

Thank you

[Ed Harbulak]

Hi Mark,

It looks like XX Boshu Ju X-shige, but I don't feel very comfortable with the Bo part of Boshu for Awa province. Maybe it will help point you in the right direction until a better answer comes along. The first two characters may be a place name in Awa province or the smith's family name.

[Robert Mormile]

Hi Mark:

Looks like:
Motoiwa Bushu Jyu Chikashige

本岩武州住周重

 

Alternatively, the Motoiwa might be Motowaka

本若武州住周重

 

I can’t seem to find an old town name as above but most of these Chikashige smiths were settled around Hachioji in western Tokyo then called Bushu.  They followed the Shitahara tradition in late koto and early Shinto times.  

 

That “chikara” times three character is actually an old variant of the “shu” character so we can understand this as Bushu.

 

Love to see some pics of the blade… 

Robert

[Mark]

Ed & Robert

 

Thanks, I will get some pictures tomorrow, blade is not in polish. I think the "town" name coming before the Province threw me off, I had seen Shu written that way before but would have expected BuShu XXX Ju so thought maybe it was something else 

[Mark]

here are a couple, blade is dated 1533, sorry the overall picture is out of focus but at least gives an idea of shape

 

If anyone has any other ideas about the place of kanji at the beginning of the mei please let me know

[Kronos]

 

Chikashige (周重), 1st gen., Kyōroku (享禄, 1528-1532), Musashi – „Bushū-jū Chikashige“ (武州住周重), „Chikashige“ (周重), civilian

name „Yamamoto Tajima“ (山本但馬), he first lived in Musashi´s Takiyama (滝山) but went later to Shitahara (下原) which is the region of

the present-day Hachiōji City (八王子) which lies to the west of Tōkyō, he is considered as ancestor of the Shitahara school named after this

place, his stylistic origins should be found in the Tokujira group (得次郎) of Shimotsuke province and also in the Sōshū tradition, from a

historical point of view, the Hōjō family (北条) had there erected the castle Hachijōji (八王子城) which served as bulwark against the

Uesugi family (上杉) which invaded from the northern province of Echigo, accordingly there was a high demand for swordsmiths in this

reagion which were recruited from lands of the Hōjō which was basically Sagami, it is also said that he came of the lineage of Sōshū

Tsunahiro (綱広), katana have a shallow sori, a broad mihaba and a think kasane, the blades feel heavy and lack some balance, there are also

ko-wakizashi and sunnobi-tantō extant, the jigane looks hard, is dark and somewhat cloudy, the jihada is a rough ō-itame mixed with shirake

and shows the characteristic „Shitahara-hada“ which consists of a kind of connected whirls ruinning along the central blade area, the hamon

is a suguha, a suguha mixed with ko-notare or a ko-gunome, the hamon is basically interpreted in the style of the Sōshū tradition but in nioideki, sometimes also mura-nie occur, the nioiguchi is mostly subdued, the tang reminds of the tanagobara-gata of Sengo Muramasas

(千子村正), chū-jō-saku

 

Looks like it could be a gimei of this guy.

[Mark]

could be gimei I guess, it seemed to look natural.  Anyway it would be nice to know what the first 2 kanji say