Sayagaki translation attempt

[DirkO]

Hi,

 

I have tried to translate this sayagaki (wak I recently bought) myself (the red text was already there, I didn't go as far as try and read the grass script) and I would like to see how far wrong I am. Can someone help me ? Not only with the reading, but also the translation :-) Once I know where I went wrong, my next translations will be better, I hope. Trial and error ... I thought it would be a massive thing to try and translate something like this, but with the correct books, it's like decyphering a secret code :lol: Only problem is, even after decyphering it, I still barely know what it means. But ok, here goes :

 

The total pic :

 

Part 1:

"Made at Yoshu Province .... purely made " No idea why there are 2 references to Yoshu AND Iyo

 

Part 2:

"3rd on a lucky day in january, 1976" Date the sword was appraised and the sayagaki was made.

 

Part 3:

"Starting price ? ...girl ... reference book" No idea about this one, totally confusing.

 

Part 4:

"Izumi large rise ...original country ..." I suppose this could mean that the smith originally came from Izumi before starting to work in Iyo ?

 

Part 5:

"Blade length 1 shaku, 7 sun strong" I'm not sure about the last "strong" bit. Maybe this describes it as being a healthy thick blade ?

 

Part 6:

"Kanzan Kao" Kanzan Sato's Kao ?

[Nobody]

Here are the translations. Original red texts for Part 2 and 6 are not 100 % correct.

 

BTW, is this the sword you bought? (through an agent?)

http://page18.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/w25519648

 

Part 1:

At Imabari, Nagakiyo of Yoshu made (this).

豫劦 (Yoshu) - province

於 (oite) = at

今張 (Imabari) - town

長清 (Nagakiyo) – smith name

作 (saku) = made

 

Part 2:

A lucky day in January of 1976

昭和 (Showa)

五拾壹 (go-ju-ichi) = 51

年 (nen) = year

丙辰 (Hei-Shin or Hinoe-Tatsu)

正月 (Shogatsu) = January

吉日 (Kichi-jitsu) = a lucky day

 

Part 3:

This is an early signature and a good reference.

初期 (Shoki) = early

銘 (Mei) = signature

也 (nari) = be

好 (ko or yoki) = good

参考 (Sanko) = reference

 

Part 4:

和泉 (Izumi) - province

大掾 (Daijo) – (honorable) title

藤原 (Fujiwara) - clan

國輝 (Kuniteru) – smith name

 

Part 5:

Blade length: a little more than 1 Shaku 7 Sun

刃長 (Ha-cho) = blade length

壹 (ichi) = 1

尺 (Shaku)

七 (Shichi) = 7

寸 (Sun)

強 (kyo) = a little more than

 

Part 6:

寒山 (Kanzan)

誌 (shirusu) = wrote

+(花押)

[DirkO]

First of all, let me thank you for the extremely quick and thorough reply !!!!

Yes that's the wak I bought. Still has to get a permit from the ministry of culture for export and then it's of to my home, where it will be my 3rd wak (i'm only a beginning collector i'm afraid )

 

A question though :

What does this mean in english ?

丙辰 (Hei-Shin or Hinoe-Tatsu)

 

And my hawleys confirms the new name of the smith :

NAG246 : Nagakiyo changed name to Izumi Daijo Kuniteru

 

All in all, I'm quite chuffed with my first attempt :D I didn't get the reference mei bit, but aside from that, with no knowledge of the language and only some books to work with, I did an OK job. Hours of work and looking up radicals till I went cross-eyed paid of !

[Nobody]

Refer to the following info.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexagenary_cycle

[DirkO]

Aaargh I even looked at that table in my WB Robinson's Arts Of the Japanese Sword, but I didn't get further then tatsu. Too bad I missed "Yang Fire Dragon" but, ok, another lesson learned !!!! Thanks for your patience in explaining what might be simple to you and what is oh so difficult to some of us

[Bugyotsuji]

My personal opinion, but I think you did really well to get that far. Congratulations. And Moriyama san ... what can I say?