Wakizashi Translation Assistance

[thirdtuck]

can anyone help me with this translation?  the sword has been passed down to me from my great great uncle who was a naval surgeon stationed in Yokohama around 1900.  He was with Admiral Dewey at the battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish American war.  

I'm trying to figure out whether this sword has value and if I should invest in having it restored.  Any and all help will be much appreciated as I travel down the rabbit hole and into this world of Nihanto!

[Peter Bleed]

Translation: Heian-jo ju Kunitake

Q1 is it worthwhile?

YES .a respected smith of the mid 17th century

Q2. Is it worth restoration.?

I doubt it. - but that is a question only you can answer

Peter

[SteveM]

I'm a bit suspicious of it because;

 

1. The unusual rendering of shiro (城).

2. The unusual rendering of kuni (國). This looks like no kuni I've ever seen before.

 

Don't know if it's acceptable to link to the following commercial sites or not, but

 

The respected smith of the 17th century looks like the following

http://kako.nipponto.co.jp/swords2/KT213238.htm

(Typically with Fujiwara added to the name)

 

Here you can see a "Heian-jo ju Kunitake" (w/o Fujiwara) that is supposedly authenticated. Looks quite different to the signature in the sword above, and quite different from the OP's sword.

http://lll.pro.tok2.com/sword/sdata97/ja606b.htm

[Ed]

Based on your poor photo of the mei, I am skeptical of it being valid.  When compared to the known good oshigata in Fujishiro's, yours looks crude and as pointed out above the characters are carved differently than what you would expect from this smith.

 

Restoration would depend upon several factors, like do you intend to keep it for sentimental reasons, plan to sell it, plan to keep it as an investment, are restoration costs an issue ??

 

If funding the restoration is not a problem, and you wish to keep it,  then it may be worth it to you to have it restored.

 

If you wish to sell it, then I would recommend forgetting it.  Restoration will most likely result in little or no profit.  The only upside here is that you have no initial investment.

 

If you plan to keep it as an investment, forget it.

 

If you want to keep it for sentimental reasons, and funds are an issue, another option would be to clean it regularly with uchiko, and keep it oiled.  Have the tsuka re-wrapped and keep it as is.

[thirdtuck]

i appreciate all of ya'lls feedback.  my plan is to keep it and pass it on as a familly heirloom.  i'm trying to learn as much about it and my great great uncle as possible so that when i pass it on I can have the story that goes with it.  was it a common thing back in the 1600s to forge a signature on a blade such as this.  it is not even a katana but a wazishaki?  and it also looks as if the last character was etched and then that hole was drilled which detracts from the character.  why is that the case?  it seems to be a bit of a mystery! 

[thirdtuck]

btw, i'm sorry for the shitty pictures, i tried to get the best light possible on the tang

[Stephen]

Not to worry you have a nice bit of Samurai history, and a great family story, to honor it IMHO id have the handled re wrapped and clean the blade with some type of solvent then oiled, it has a yellow hue is that just your photo or the color it is now, GIs put a lot of different coatings to keep them from rusting, Id  use oops if you can find it, be sure to check with us what cleaner as some can dis color. Denatured alcohol works as well.

 

http://www.legacyswords.com/newcontact.htm

 

Ted does a great job and he could clean it up some

 

 

David McDonald  does a nice wrap as well

http://www.montanairon.com/swords.html

 

 

PS That second hole was for extra support of the tsuka, often its been when a blades been shortened.  

Im sure yours was from a samurai wanting a strong tsuka for fighting.

 

PSS

 

a very light wipe of oil on the nakago as well to stop the red rust, 

Remember what Neal Young taught us....well maybe your to young for that LOL

[ROKUJURO]

Thirdluck,

please sign all messages with at least a first name plus an initial, so we can address you properly.

If your sword has created an interest in you for the SAMURAI culture, I would suggest that you buy some basic books on the subject. We have lots of recommendations here at NMB. It will probably be fascinating to learn how to esteem a blade and how to keep it intact for future generations. Even with a non-authentic signature it is a true SAMURAI WAKIZASHI (not wazishaki) with a long history and at least a sentimental value if not a monetary one!  

[SteveM]

Hello Thirdtuck,

 

Your sword may be much more recent than the 1600s. It is possible that it was made in the 1800s, and someone added the Kunitake signature to give it the appearance of being much older. It is extremely common in the sword world (then as well as now). 

 

I'm a bit of a purist with regard to swords, so I would be very careful of using any solvents because if you don't know what you are doing you could end up doing harm to the blade. Even if the signature is fake, the sword might still have some merit, so best to take care of it until someone can tell you for sure what you have. The uchiko is a good idea - look on Amazon if you don't know what this is. And, as above, get a book on swords. John Yumoto's book used to be the default beginner's book. Maybe there is a better one now. 

 

Wakizashi or Katana depends on how long it is. Traditionally a katana is anything over 2 shaku (about 23.8 inches). Anything under that would be a wakazashi. There is some elasticity in this definition, but that is the general rule. 

[Jean]

Name is Percy T.....

[thirdtuck]

a friend of mine showed her sister-in-law who is Japanese pictures of the sword and she said the characters are Chinese.  Does this make any sense at all?  Did the Chinese manufacture Japanese swords in the late 1800's?

[thirdtuck]

sorry, yes my name is T. Percy

[Peter Bleed]

This thread has wandered across a number of topics and into some potential pitfalls. I have no specific familiarity with this smith - Kunitake, was it. I have also not done any research on him. Still, I have to say that I doubt that this blade is a gimei. I am also sure that it IS NOT an 18th century Chinese copy. 

Kunitake was a respected smith but he is not the kind of guy who was likely to have been a serious target for a fake signature. Further more, if somebody was going to cut a gimei of his signature,  I would expect it to have been studied enough to look like one of his "typical" signature.

Instead of being a nisemono, this might be an artfully cut signature that used some odd character styles. To address that possibility we would need to see more of his signatures. In the course of their careers, some smiths did change their signature dramamtically. I invite the Board to compare the early and late signatures of Sho-dai Kunikane.

The only way to assess this matter would be  to submit this blade to shinsa. And that gets back to the question Percy initially asked. "Is this blade worth restoration?" My answer to that question remains the same. It depends on how hard Percy wants to work.

Percy, I think you are becoming a sword collector. Welcome aboard!

Peter

[Stephen]

When i first got into Nihonto i asked my wife(now x) about a mei she could not read it saying is old way to write, as been stated its Nihonto now up to take it to your standards of restoration.

[thirdtuck]

thank you for welcoming me a board!  this is certainly a fascinating world.  the blades are beautiful works of art that I can certainly appreciate, but what burns me is the history behind them.  i have this huge desire to understand where this blade came from and how my great great uncle got his hands on it.  he was able to successfully treat a high ranking Japanese official while he was chief surgeon of the US Naval Hospital at Yokaham around 1905. This official also gave him a silver chalice that is a priceless heirloom passed onto me.  I'm wondering if this official is who he also got the sword from.  I'm not sure how to go about finding out the name but that would be a huge piece to the puzzle.

i definitely want to learn more and start collecting some nice Japanese swords.  I have purchased the book by John Yamoto and also a uchiko from Amazon.  I am going to call around to try to find someone who can repair the handle and possible sharpen and clean up the blade a little! 

thank you guys for all your help and i'm very excited to be amongst your ranks!

[Stephen]

We dont sharpen blades, when fully polished they become "sharp" again. If an amateur tells you he can, run away.

[thirdtuck]

sounds good, thank you for the heads up Stephen.  can you recommend anyone who can rewrap the tsuka, refurbish the saya and polish the blade?

[Stephen]

I know a lot was coming at you fast, see post seven, I have.

 

Id use Ted Tenold, I believe he can do a one stop shop. http://www.legacyswo.../newcontact.htm

[thirdtuck]

has anyone heard of this guys:  Heianjo ju Kuniuji?  I got an email back from a renowned polisher who recognized the smith to be this guy.

[Stephen]

search both mei and see which match

[Stephen]

http://www.toukenkomachi.com/index_en_tachi&katanaA061013.html

[Stephen]

I dont find any Kuniuji....ill go break open a book

[Stephen]

found one KUNIUJI... a bitchu kuni mizuta kuniuji... not same guy.

[SteveM]

I think definitely this is supposed to be Kunitake. The mekugi-ana (peg hole) is placed such that one might suppose uji (氏) is a possible candidate for the last kanji, but from the other parts of the name it seems obvious that its supposed to be Kunitake.

 

As to whether it is authentic or not, I leave to the experts. It slightly resembles the engraving on the lance/halberd (槍) posted above. But the kanji for Kuni and Shiro in your sword are quite strange, and strangely-rendered kanji are usually a hallmark of fake signatures. Engraving the kanji into the nakago is a very deliberate process. It's not like signing your name, where occasionally you slip or put too much strength into one part or the other. Engraving the kanji is a somewhat time-consuming process where each stroke requires some deliberation. It's almost impossible to have an "oops" moment where you would slip and screw up a kanji in an engraving.

 

Sword-related terminology is a unique thing, and requires some study. Japanese people unfamiliar with swords would not know what to make of any sword jargon. Terms that we casually throw around: nie, nioi, shinogi, nakago, boshi, jihada, hataraki, etc... either have no meaning in everyday Japanese, or have meanings other than what they mean in the sword world. It is a specialized vocabulary. Likewise, signatures from even a hundred years past, like yours 「平安城住國武作」 means nothing to modern Japanese, and I'm not surprised that a Japanese person who is not a sword enthusiast would think it is Chinese. 

 

Edit: Actually Uji (氏) can't be a candidate because the long vertical stroke of the final kanji on your sword is piercing the top horizontal line. This isn't the way to write Uji, so we can rule this out as a candidate. 

[Stephen]

Steve i tip my boshi to you, 

[thirdtuck]

the signature does match the one from above, however, the one above has two additional characters that my blade doesn't have.  does it make sense that he would have shortened what was inscribed on my blade because it is a much smaller piece and cannot fit those characters in the inscription?  my wife, who is chinese, can make out some of the characters and told me that Japanese written language was heavily influence/borrowed from the chinese.  hence the older the insciption, the more it looks like chinese.

i'm planning to take the sword to st. augustine to the Southeast Japnese Sword Show and Auction in february to submit it for shinsa.

[SteveM]

does it make sense that he would have shortened what was inscribed on my blade because it is a much smaller piece and cannot fit those characters in the inscription?  

 

No. 

 

It is possible that over time he changed his signature to include the Fujiwara name, which is a name that is associated with nobility.

Unfortunately you also have to consider the possibility that this is a forgery, and the forger left off the Fujiwara kanji, for whatever reason.

 

It something I can't determine from the pictures, but as I've hinted a couple of times above, I have some suspicions.

Sending it for shinsa would be one way to help determine its authenticity. Good luck!

[thirdtuck]

a Japanese friend of mine found a short video of a sword with the same signature as mine.  he inscibed that blade without the fujiwara characters.