mei help please

[jrs]

Hey Guys,

I need help with this one. I can't make out the first character. The second one is "mitsu". The blade is signed tachi-mei and has a very prominent mokume/o-mokume hada. The hamon is gunome midare on one side and much more suguha on the other from what I can tell. Also the boshi is midare yakitsume.

Any ideas out there?

 

I've added an enhanced negative image to see if that helps.

Thanks

James

[Bugyotsuji]

Looks difficult to photograph. No better shots available?

[Mark]

Hard to make out in the pictures, sort of out of focus in the first one...... If i had to guess based on what i can see i would venture Munemitsu

[drbvac]

It is hard to photograph dark nakago mei. If I had to guess I would suggest Nagamitsu, but ?

[Guest reinhard]

I tried to enhance the bad pics a little. This is more of a guess than a serious translation, but the mei reminds me of YASUMITSU (with the Kanji for YASU as in Oei-Bizen YASUMITSU). Better pics would be appreciated.

 

reinhard

[jrs]

Reinhard,

That is a possiblity as I had started to think this may be an oei-bizen uchigatana. i'll look into it a little further and see if I can get pictures of the blade to post.

Thanks!

James

[jrs]

[Guido]

I can't see the first character clearly, but the second one looks like "mitsu". Just off of the back of my head: the "roundishness" of the Kanji reminds me of signatures of Kaga smiths, and many of them used "mitsu" as a second character indeed.

[Guest reinhard]

Hi James,

 

Your camera seems to take pics slightly out of focus (some of them). Adjusting this would be of great help. Thanks.

 

reinhard

[jrs]

Reinhard,

I've tried and I just can't seem to get it to focus even using the macro setting. I work in the jewelry business and take all of our photos for advertising so I do know a little about photographing reflective surfaces close up but just cant seem to get this camera to do it for me. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I may try my camera from work if I can remember to bring it home to see if that works better or if I am the problem.

[Guest reinhard]

I do know a little about photographing reflective surfaces close up but just cant seem to get this camera to do it for me. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

I'm no help in this field, but especially Darcy and some others on this board are very good at taking pictures of blades. Maybe one of them will come up with suggestions. There might be an older thread discussing this subject as well.

 

reinhard

[Brian]

James,

Have you tried less coffee? :lol:

If you have access to a scanner, sometimes they do a better job than a camera. Also, try taking pics outside in natural light, sometimes makes it clearer.

 

Brian

[Jean]

Use a tripod or a column, if possible privilege a very small aperture (11/16), do not use your automatic camera function but put it rather on manual.

 

That was what I used to do with my old camera. It must be possible with SLR Digital camera

[Bugyotsuji]

James,

Have you tried less coffee? :lol:

If you have access to a scanner, sometimes they do a better job than a camera. Also, try taking pics outside in natural light, sometimes makes it clearer.

 

Brian

 

Someone once mentioned shooting in the shade, and not in direct sunlight. You could try 10 shots at different light angles and post the best two or three of those. (Sounds as though I'm trying to teach my grandmother to suck eggs.)

[Brian]

Yes, when taking reflective shots of a blade, then shade is better. But on a dark nakago where refleaction isn't as much of an issue, I think outdoors might be better. My older camera (2.1mp Sony Cybershot) takes great macro shots, never had a problem with any close-ups. I keep it for that reason, and use my DSLR for longer shots.

 

Brian

[Jacques D.]

Hi,

 

La plus belle fille du monde ne peut donner que ce qu'elle a.

 

The most beautiful girl in the world, cannot give more than she has.

 

I suppose this mei difficult to read with blade in hand, so it will not be easier on photos (which are not so bad).

[jrs]

Ok, I've tried everything I could come up with to get better pictures but they just aren't getting better. And it is true that the mei isn't legible in person although I was hoping someone would recognize the work and mei. Off to Bob Benson it goes, because, the possibilities keep sending me in circles as to who made this. Hopefully I will have interesting news in 6-12 months.

Thanks for everyones input and if anyone still has ideas as to who this is, please say so.

[jrs]

Here is another (better) picture of the signature in case anyone can read it.

[Guest reinhard]

Again this is more of a notion than serious analysis: Looking at the nakago again, it seems there had been an older mei erased with very weak traces remaining. Telling from the pics I see something like the squarish remnants of a Kanji (KUNI?) below the character MITSU.

All in all the mei doesn't look to me as if it was truly altered by time.

 

Be it as it may. Searching long enough for faded details on old, deteriorated nakago is affecting your perception in a similar way like meditation in front of a mirror does. After a while you start to see everything you want to see and even later what you never wanted to see, while the truth is still somewhere else.

 

reinhard

[Nobody]

This is more of a guess than a serious translation, but the mei reminds me of YASUMITSU (with the Kanji for YASU as in Oei-Bizen YASUMITSU).

I agree with reinhard.

I can only guess that but it looks Yasumitsu (安光) to me.

 

Ref. Yasumitsu of Naminohira

http://www.e-sword.jp/sale/0710_3008syousai.htm

[Guest reinhard]

What I had in mind originally was another Kanji for YASU, but Moriyama-san brings up another possibility I did not think of.

This thread is very well illustrating the troubles one gets into, when trying to decipher what cannot be deciphered for sure. To prevent total confusion: Here's what the mei reminded me of at the very beginning:

 

reinhard

[Bugyotsuji]

What do you see in here?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Rorschach1.jpg

[Guest reinhard]

Rorschach

 

Well, that's about it.

 

reinhard

[Jacques D.]

Hi,

 

+1 with Bugyotsuji

 

For the second kanji, why not "Hiro" 大 ?