Help needed for signature

[kiku]

Hallo everybody,

I own some Aikuchi and I have never found out the signature and now I am here in this forum and I hope there is someone who can help me with translation.

 

Thank´s a lot to everybody

 

Best regards

 

Kiku

 

Edit Brian - Crop those pics! Most of them were just blank space. Edited, cropped and adjusted brightness.

[Guest reinhard]

Japanese read columns from right to left. The person, who wrote the nengo (date-inscription) didn't know. Conclusion: The signature is in all probability a fake. If I'll be proven wrong, I'll give you a translation. Before that, I don't want to give any more hints to potential forgers.

 

reinhard

[Mark]

maker looks to read Bizen Katsumitsu, the pictures are hard for me to see in detail, i can't make out the date...... from seeing the mei i would agree with the previous post, it looks VERY questionable to me

[Paul Martin]

Is that a moro-ha zukuri tanto? Can we have better pics please and one of the whole length. A dark background may be better. Sakon Katsumitsu

 

Best

[kiku]

here is some overview about the complett blade. I need to tell that I am a little bit shocked because the mei should be a fake, so please loo carefuly because I like this Aikuchi very much because it was a gift from my father.

 

Best

 

Kiku

[Nobody]

Kiku,

 

If it is possible, I would like to see clearer pics of its mei and date on the nakago. I cannot identify some kanji in the pics of your previous post.

[kiku]

here are some more pictures of the nakago, maybe somebody can help me with this pics.

Greetings

Sebastian

[Nobody]

here are some more pictures of the nakago, maybe somebody can help me with this pics.

Greetings

Sebastian

Sebastian,

 

Thanks for the pictures. Interesting Mei; I have not seen such a Mei before and I still cannot read the smith’s name. The smith does not seem to be Katsumitsu to me.

 

The mei reads as follows, though I might be wrong about the last kanji.

å‚™å‰åœ‹å‰ç½¡ä½ (Bizen no kuni Yoshioka ju)

左近å‹åº€ (Sakon Katsu+?)

[Brian]

Moriyama san,

 

Would this tie in with Paul's translation above...Sakon Katsumitsu?

SAKON KATSUMITSU TEN-SHO 1573 from http://www.sho-shin.com/sue2.htm

 

Brian

[Guest reinhard]

What I was trying to say politely was: The person, who carved this mei was (is?) obviously not familiar with Japanese swords and their inscriptions. Although it seems to be something like "Sakon Katsumitsu" from Bizen and dated "Bun-something" it is obviously a fake and we should not give any more hints towards right direction.

 

reinhard