I'm Stumped

[J Reid]

Hey guys! I have a katana blade in pretty rough shape. Regardless, I've been able to verify a certain level of quality in the piece. (Hoping it's a) Suriage late kamakura period blade.

1 inch of original nakago in tact with taka no ha yasurime and partial mei.

Blade has all traits of yamato:

 

-high mune and shinogi.

-gunome/ notare-midare hamon

-notare boshi with no kaeri

-chu kissaki

-blackish more rich ko itame jigane with Masame running in the ha.

-taka no ha yasurime

-what looks to be a 2 character niji mei

-**signed katana mei

-Bohi terminating in nakago on both omote and ura.

 

Blades sugata and patina on nakago has me looking into late kamakura/early nambokucho. Am I too hopeful? Is yasurime possible to be seen on blades this old? I know it's signed katana mei but that wasn't unheard of. I've recently seen an example of an early Yamato blade signed katana mei.

 

My real question is can anyone identify kanji #1 in this picture? I have the second as naga 長. First could be kane 兼

I don't know for sure though.. I have a few other names floating around but any help would be greatly appreciated. I know the picture is bad but it's hard to photograph this one and it's equally as hard to see in person. Blade doesn't have much to show at the moment as it's terribly scratched and banged all to hell.

[SwordGuyJoe]

I'd say Sadamitsu

[J Reid]

Thanks for your input Joe. I was able to take clearer pictures today. I'm pretty confident that the second kanji is naga.

[SwordGuyJoe]

Yes - agreed now on the Naga character.

[Jussi Ekholm]

More pictures would help in identifying as it will be hard without seeing the blade.

 

Just looking at the signature my guess would be Mino and late Kotō. There were several Kanenaga working in Mino province during late Kotō period. However in Koto-meikan there is oshigata of Tenshō era Kanenaga and he seemed to use similar curved bottom left stroke for naga.

[J Reid]

Jussi,

 

Thanks for your reply. Could you possibly scan the oshigata for the kanenaga working in tensho? Kanenaga is my gut feeling as well. I guess I just fantasized an earlier, more important smith. This sword is definitely not kazu uchi mono.. I will post pictures of the blade later when I have a chance to take better pictures.

[Jussi Ekholm]

Left one is from Koto-meikan - Middle one is your - right one is from Meito Oshigata Shu, as description is in all Japanese I couldn't read it correctly quickly but I think it says this wakizashi was made around transition period from Kotō to Shintō, so I suppose this is the same smith as in Koto-meikan.

[J Reid]

Upon comparing the 3 images I am confident about the mei being 兼長. However, I feel my kanenaga is earlier than the right mei and a different smith than the left mei. The left nakago seems to have kiri yasurime (if my eyes are not mistaken), and mekugi-ana placement is different. Thanks so much for your help!!!