New member. Questions on my Katana.

[mjj21]

Hello. I have a Katana sword that was given to me by my grandfather about 15 years ago. He told me he swapped a German rifle for it in North Africa during WW2. It's been in storage. I finally found a knifemaker here who oiled it, took some pictures and told me it was indeed a Katana sword. Possibly pre WW1. I've attached some pictures. He was not familiar with inscription. Any other info would be appreciated regarding possible age, value, history, etc. I have the sheath as well. I'll try and look for some more pictures. Thank you. 

 

 

 

[SAS]

The tsuba (guard) is not supposed to be shiny; someone aggressively cleaned it (not good). The sword is older; it has been shortened, and the signature retained by a process called orikaishimei; this was done on certain older swords.

[Brian]

Let me be the first to say Holy Carp!
Yes...it's much older than WW1. And it was shortened at some point with a smith deciding the signature was too important to lose, so it was folded over into the new tang.
Nice. This should be a good sword, you need to take care of it.

[Curran]

Grandpa gave you a real one. "Nobukuni Genpei(?) ....... ?"

This should be interesting.

[Ganko]

Nobukuni Minamoto Heishiro Yoshimasa.   A Shinto Chikuzen swordsmith circa 1661. Hawleys YOS 1322

[mjj21]

The tsuba (guard) is not supposed to be shiny; someone aggressively cleaned it (not good). The sword is older; it has been shortened, and the signature retained by a process called orikaishimei; this was done on certain older swords.

Would the signature be of the maker? 

[mjj21]

Let me be the first to say Holy Carp!

Yes...it's much older than WW1. And it was shortened at some point with a smith deciding the signature was too important to lose, so it was folded over into the new tang.

Nice. This should be a good sword, you need to take care of it.

Thanks. It was recently oiled. Any advice would be appreciated. I live in the high desert. Very dry, low humidity but not sure of proper storage. 

[Grey Doffin]

Hi, name please,

Here is a care and handling brochure; please read it twice.  And don't try to fix anything; well intentioned amateur repairs usually do serious damage.

http://nbthk-ab.org/cleaning-maintenance.html

Grey

[Peter Bleed]

This would have been an interesting bit of research. I'm sorry I didn't have my ears on. This smith seems worthy, but -well- regional. Somebody seems to have thought highly of this sword, tho, given the way the signature was treated when it was shortened. Interesting!

Peter

[16k]

Very interesting sword and temper line. You’ve inherited a beautiful sword my friend! Cherish it! It deserves much love!

[SAS]

Would the signature be of the maker? 

 

Yes, assuming that the mei is shoshin (genuine). It was frequently the practice to inscribe  swords with a big name for presentation purposes, so a study of the signature would be helpful to determine if it is representative of the actual smith's work.

[Dave R]

Here is what was done with the signature, "mei"

... 

 

http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/suriage.html

[Bruce Pennington]

Wow, that's the longest mei I've ever seen tacked on!

[zook]

I enjoyed reading that link Dave - thanks much for posting it!   Dan