Tsuba help

[ice-hot]

Hello,

Looking for help reading the Mei on a this Tsuba. It was on a Koto Wakizashi that I inherited from a family friend. I have visited numerous Japanese sword sites but haven't found one like it yet, but thats probably just my Novice eye! There is alot of rust and discoloration around the characters and I'm not sure if anyone could translate it? The link below will take you directly to pic. Thanks for having a look. John A

 

http://img179.imageshack.us/my.php?imag ... 005cd5.jpg

[DSweet]

Looks like it has been in the hands of someone who decided to clean off the patina 8(

 

-Donovan

[Ford Hallam]

Hi John,

 

I'm sure you might get some more responses if you cropped that image a little. I'm on a really fast broadband connection but I imagine that if anyone with anything slower attempted to view it they'd give up after watching a vast area of white towel slowly download. I'd estimate that you could lose at least 80% of that image and save us all a lot of wasted time.

 

regards, Ford

 

I've taken the liberty of cropping it myself, by almost 90%, here is the result sans towelling.

[ice-hot]

Yes probably, the gentelman that gave it to me was retired Army and brought it back from Japan when he came home from WWII. He kept it sharp as a razor and used it around the farm

every day, he sharpened it on a wetstone and used to say, They (Japanese) make the best damn knife in the world! He never called it a sword. And coming from a man who went through two wars I belived him. So its been alot of fun learning about it and trying to restore it. I sent it to a polisher and he called last week to let me know that he had finished the shaping and thought it was still a good Koto blade and was worth finishing. Quite a testament to the smith after the use its seen! It's signed, Tachi mei "Shigimitsu". Sorry about the long story but I thought it would be interesting to the members of this forum. Can anything be done with this tsuba? What kind of patena should it have? It is alot darker then the pic. shows but I'm sure it's been cleaned often. Thanks, John A

[ice-hot]

Hello Ford,

Thank you for the adjustment. I thought I was doing well just getting it on! Sorry about the problems. Thanks again, John A

[Nobody]

The inscription on the left may be as follows, but I am a little unsure about the last kanji.

埋忠é‡ç¾© (Umetada Shigeyoshi; reading?)

 

As for the kanji on the right, I am totally unsure.

Only guess; è¥¿é™£ä½ (Nishijin ju)

[ice-hot]

Thank you for taking the time to help Koichi. I will continue my research. Thanks,

John A