Any idea of what this means?

[Will Leavitt]

My mother read the writing on the "fake" WWII tanto blade I showed earlier. She says it's an old style Kanji and says "6 left Oyamashi." She's not sure what the 6 left meant but that Oyamashi would be a town or something, we're from Okinawa so understandable if it's a mainland town.

 

Any information on what this means?

[AZPhil]

This is just a guess, but if it's a "Fake Tanto" maybe it's Faked Kanji and it was meant to fool and means nothing.

???????????

 

How about a Pic???

[Nobody]

I modified the pic of your tanto in your previous post. The attached pic shows the inscription I got.

Though the pic is not clear, I do not think that the inscription mean anything. There are several Oyamashi(s) in the mainland, but I do not think that the inscription says Oyamashi.

 

大 or 太 (or 六?) – big (or six)

å·¦ - left

大 – big

屮 – left (same as 左)

市 – market, or city

[Will Leavitt]

Thanks for your replies.

 

Koichi, my mother is pretty sure it says Oyamashi, the only parts she was even remotely confused about was the 6 Left, she said it didn't make sense. It's not Chinese, since she speaks and writes Chinese as well as Japanese.

[Brian]

Will,

I know on another forum you were a bit put off by the responses and lack of further info.

To be honest, everyone here studies true Japanese swords and metalwork, and this is just not even close to anything produced by a Japanese swordsmith. There isn't even one similarity to a true Nihonto, and therefore the lack of any input. It is just not something we know about.

Nobody-san is (although he wouldn't admit it) one of our resident experts on kanji as related to their use on swords, and his opinion is better than 99% of anyone out there. Kanji as used on swords isn't interpreted the same as a modern reader would read it. The kanji there has no real meaning, except maybe to the person who put it there. But you can even see that the style isn't fluid and liek handwriting. It is crude and amateurish.

 

It is so far from a true tanto that I wonder if it is even a fake. A fake would have tried harder to look like the real thing. I wonder perhaps if it isn't a home-made tool of some kind..maybe for woodworking or scraping. Maybe someone made it at home, and added some crude kanji. It may be a tool, or a fake. But not a Japanese sword/tanto. I wish I was wrong and could give you better news, but afraid not.

 

Brian

 

Btw - The original thread for anyone wishing to see the pics:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2582&p=18302

[Stephen]

Will

 

Just one more note, the comments in no way slight you Moms abilty to read Chinese or Japanese, my first ex was from where you moms from. when i got into Nihonto i would take rubbings over to ask her about them, there very few kanji that was like what she was used to reading, some yes but most its old kanji and it was a big Q mark to her, in fact i told her some. B. and the rest have told about what you have and when they try to fake a blade they just drop down any kanji they want and have a laugh.

[Guest Nanshoku-Samurai]

Sorry, but it absolutely makes no sense to translate signatures of Chinese copies ...