Please help identifying mei

[Novalame]

Hi,

 

I recently purchased a new blade for my collection. It's in pretty rough condition and will doubtlessly need to be sent to a competent togishi when I can scrape the funds together.

 

Unfortunately my camera's not quite working so I only have these few pictures of the tang which I've cleaned up as best as I can (the pictures, not the tang). To make it a little bit more legible I have fiddled around with the contrast etc. which will explain some of the odd coloring. 

 

I'll add some better photos as soon as I can, if anyone's interested.

 

Thank you for all of your help and opinions.

 

Regards, 

 

Ellie,

[ROKUJURO]

Ellie,

very difficult to read because of the heavy corrosion! MASA (?) YUKI SAKU?

The sloppiness of the chiselling and the YASURI-ME remind me of WWII blades.

[Jacques]

Looks strongly chinese fake...

[Stephen]

WW2 Seki showato

[Nobody]

正行 - Masayuki

 

I guess that the following Masayuki is the answer.

http://japaneseswordindex.com/oshigata/masayuk4.jpg

[Novalame]

Hi!

 

Thanks for the replies. Very helpful. Definitely looks like "Masayuki".

 

One thing I don't quite understand is that the nagako seems to be terribly corroded. The rest of the blade, whilst it has some surface red rust and a couple of knocks, isn't. Any ideas as to what this means?

 

Second question, why would there be two mekugi-ana so close to one another?

 

Thanks,

[Novalame]

Measures about 90 cm.

 

Managed to get a few more photos:

[Stephen]

Second question, why would there be two mekugi-ana so close to one another?

 

easy it was remounted for another person.

 

​as for the corrosion it all depends on the environment it was keep it. 

 

blade is corroded badly as well  not salvageable in my opinion.

[ROKUJURO]

Ellie,

the MEKUGI-ANA are in fact not very close to one another which is surprising as a new TSUKA would normally not be a lot different in length. 

The SHINOGI-JI appears to be unusually narrow, but this can be an effect of the photo shot in an angle. If you want to post more photos, please take them right from above and show them tip-up.
The length is measured without NAKAGO (not Nagako). 

Corrosion on the NAKAGO can be intentional on fakes to pretend great age, but this can also occur on WWII blades in case they are exposed to moisture. The TSUKA keeps the water longer than the naked blade itself, creating more rust. But I have seen blades that had had water standing in the SAYA. That doesn't do good either.

[Ganko]

This condition of the nakago on WW2 blades is usually caused by the tsuka having been soaked and not allowed to dry out for a long time as Jean has said. I have seen this many times. As regards the two mekugi ana, I believe that some smiths have a normal preferred location where they make the hole but it is not the ideal location for the military mountings with their thicker tsubas and multiple seppa. This would account for a hole about 1/2" below the original.

[Novalame]

Thanks for your help.

 

I'll see if I can post some more photos as and when I have a camera worthy of the name.