Help W/ Mei

[reeder]

I think it's Katsunaga and ? Tadaten(?) saku kore. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I could not find this smith in my references or with mei searches online. I did find one Katsunaga from -1848 on JSSUS but could not find oshigata to compare to.

Nakago almost looks like some of the better fakes coming out of China but the blade itself and the fittings look ok.

[reeder]

Here's a couple of pictures of the blade and fittings.

[SteveM]

Looks like an unusual collection of kanji

臣忠夫倅之

 

Jin Tadao Segare Kore (with a very stylized "Tada")

 

Which one might translate as "made by the son of Jin Tadao", but that would be a very loose translation because

A) there is no "made" in that mei, and

-B: "Jin" is not a typical Japanese last name

C) Segare, meaning son, is not a kanji I have ever seen on a mei. A bit strange.

 

These together with the highly stylized Tada make me think the signature is a bit suspicious.

 

You have the other side right. 勝永 Katsunaga

[Brian]

Looks wrong. Not one of the Komonjo eBay swords?

[Stephen]

Cant help with the Kanji, but pretty sure it was cut in the last  month or so.

[reeder]

  On 9/1/2015 at 6:51 AM, Brian said:

Looks wrong. Not one of the Komonjo eBay swords?

 

No, I purchased it from a guy off another forum.  I guess he could have got it from Komonjo at some point and mounted it in original Type 98 fittings?  Came with the typical vet purchase story, which I know is to be taken with a grain of salt.  As with most swords I come across and purchase, I was not provided pictures of the nakago on this one (most people don't know or want to mess with removing the tsuka, sometimes it works out great, other times not so much).  Like I said, nakago pictures put aside, the blade itself and the fittings all look original WWII.  Blade fits nicely in saya & tsuka.  Tsuba has a slight wiggle.  Seppa, tsuba & tsuka all have matching numbers...

[Markus]

  On 9/1/2015 at 1:22 AM, SteveM said:

C) Segare, meaning son, is not a kanji I have ever seen on a mei. A bit strange.

 

I think it is "nigaru" (焠), a rather uncommon term for "harening." So "hardened by..."

Not sure about the name but the first character also reads "Omi" or "Tomi" as Japanese family name. So maybe "Omi/Tomi Tadao kore o niragu".

[SteveM]

Yes, I think you are right. 焠 (this makes two new kanji I have learned from this thread)

 

My gut feeling is that this is still a problematic mei. The name, the highly unusual kanji... The curious use of 勝永 on one side, and 臣 on the other. It seems a bit much... but I have been surprised before.

[k morita]

  On 9/2/2015 at 4:46 PM, Markus said:

I think it is "nigaru" (焠), a rather uncommon term for "harening." So "hardened by..."

Not sure about the name but the first character also reads "Omi" or "Tomi" as Japanese family name. So maybe "Omi/Tomi Tadao kore o niragu".

 

Hi,

You're correc.

But, right pronunciation is "Niragu",not "Nigaru".

[SteveM]

I couldn't help but post this.

In looking for other examples of an Ōmura Kaboku mei (from another recent thread), I came across the following sword. This sword uses the same 焠 kanji that was used in the above sword. I guess it is not as "highly unusual" as I first thought.

 

I'm wondering what exactly is the work of the person doing the 焠 . It seems to imply not just hardening, but the quenching as well, as if one smith forged up until it came out of the water, and handed the unfinished blade to another smith for final shaping. Would that be accurate?

http://www.tokka.biz/sword/kaboku.html

 

Funny note: The dealer has misidentified the kanji as 焙 (aburu)   well, funny to me,   

[reeder]

Steve, you guys would know more than me on these items.  I'm used to just a name or name & date on WWII blades.  Like I said, the fittings are righteous & the blade fits nicely as should as well as the blade itself looks like your standard WWII produced blade.  Anyways, I don't think I have a place for this sword in my collection so I will be listing it on eBay at auction starting at $0.99 and just letting it go where it goes.  Hope to at least get the bulk of my money back...  Guess you win some and lose some when buying blindly.  Thanks for all of the help!

[Stephen]

Brandon 

 

Be sure to link us up to ebay

 

could the last kanji of the two be tsune?

[reeder]

Sure thing.  I have a couple of swords from my personal collection I'll be listing/selling and a few swords on consignment some friends asked me to list on their behalf.  I'll post the links to each sword in the appropriate section, and will post the link to that thread here.  You'll have to forgive the amateur photos, I'm horrible on photographing everything, especially swords.  And obviously if purchased directly vs through eBay, I will donate the 10% to NMB vs eBay, which I would much rather do anyways.