Translation Help Of Signed Seppa..?

[Barrie B]

Hi all,

 

I have these gold foil seppa that have kanji on them. Can anyone please tell me what they say/ or mean?

 

I can't imagine that they are marked Ura and Omote as this seems obvious to me.. The kanji on both seppa do look similar as well.. Is it (perhaps..?) lightly and rather cleverly signed by the apprentice tasked to make them..? ..or perhaps they were marked by the maker for payment at a later date..? Or perhaps marked for the blade they were made for, as the maker possibly made several pairs a day? 

 

Any assistance would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

Barrie.

 

[Bruce Pennington]

Barrie,

 

Good luck with that!  I've just started collecting seppa kanji and posting for translation, but no one seems to know what they mean.  My theory is that seppa craftsmen, or their companies, created "logo" style kanji as their special mark, sort of like the curvy checkmark of the Nike shoes.  I'm compiling them and posting on the Arsenal Stamp thread, though, they probably deserve a separate thread of their own.

[Barrie B]

Bruce,

 

Thank you for your reply.. I have a Kai Gunto that has numbers stamped on all the fittings and this makes sense in a mass-production environment, but away from that, seppa were custom made for the blade and koshirae. I really do not see how they could be easily mixed up - unless they were in a semi-mass production environment as well? My only guess is perhaps they were marked to be paired up later after a seperate kinko artist applied the gold foil. Perhaps the 'kinko' artist waited until he received several/ many pairs of seppa (perhaps on a string) to apply the foil, so as to be more efficient with his time.. After all, if you are set up (to 'foil' one pair), you are surely good to go for a small production or batch.. I would have thought that the foil would be applied by the same person making the seppa, just as it is on habaki.  Anyway, perhaps we will never know.

 

Barrie.

[SteveM]

Hello Barrie, Bruce,

 

My opinion on this particular set is that the markings are just scratches. They do not look like a deliberately engraved kanji to me. 

Bruce, I've seen your other posts, but the markings on your seppa and tsuba didn't seem to be anything worth note: just katakana letters with some numbers (マ or ロ, for example). 

[Barrie B]

Steve,

 

Thanks, you might be right. It does seem odd that anyone would either sign or mark up seppa..

 

Barrie.

[Stephen]

They were made as a stocking number for who/which sword by artist.