Please Confirm

[Stephen]

Fellow would like this translated over on a FB page

[Shugyosha]

Hi Stephen, I've had a bit of a punt at this but I could use some help.

 

I think that it ends Minamoto Nobuyori (原信目) but I can't tie down a couple of kanji from the start and so can't get the whole thing to make sense.

 

It goes something like:

 

祖 - ancestor/ founder

九 nine / ninth

代 generation

 

Then I lose the next couple of kanji. The first one looks a bit like it could be 之 but I can't be sure. The next one looks clear enough but I can't find a kanji that looks sufficiently similar. Perhaps someone can bail me out...

 

I hope that has helped a bit.

 

Best, John

[Stephen]

Thank you John

I have asked for a better photo of bottom kanji i was working on kuni with part rusted??

 

looking forward to more input.

[John A Stuart]

Nobukuni for me. John

[Shugyosha]

John and Stephen, I like your reading of the name better than mine. I'm not sure that this is heading in the right direction, but this similar style signature is from Markus Sesko's Swordsmiths of Japan:

 

NOBUKUNI (信国), Genroku (元禄, 1688-1704), Ōshū – “So jūdai-me Minamoto Nobukuni” (祖拾代目源信国, “10th gen. Minamoto Nobukuni after the founder of the school”), “Chikuzen no Kuni-jū Minamoto Nobukuni Yoshihiro saku” (筑前国住源信国吉寛作), “Ōshū Morioka-jū Minamoto Nobukuni” (奥州盛岡住源信国), real name Shindō Heibei (新藤平兵衛), he came originally from Chikuzen´s Fukuoka (福岡) and was the second son of Nobukuni Suketsugu (信国助次), he counted himself as 10th gen. Nobukuni, he moved first from Fukuoka to Kurume (久留米) and then during the Tenna era (天和, 1681-1684) via Edo to the northern Morioka (盛岡), in earlier years he had also signed with Yoshihiro (吉寛), after the move to Morioka he dropped this name and signed just with Nobukuni, he died on the 21st day of the first month Genroku twelve (1699)

 

If this is relevant, presumably the guy who signed the sword in Stephen's OP was the ninth generation, the father of this entry...but I have had a couple of beers now and my judgement may be impaired...

 

Best,

John

[Toryu2020]

no listing for anyone signing "kyudai" in the meikan,

i would focus on the blade and approach the mei with caution...

-t

[pcfarrar]

I recently came into possession of this sword and found this thread by random chance from a Google search of nobukuni.

 

It's an interesting katana well made with suguha hamon and some decent activity going on above the hamon. At first glance it looks very much like a hizen-to and has a nice ko-itame hada.

 

I was unable to find any examples of this signature in books but the workmanship in the blade seems consistent for the Chikuzen Nobukuni school....