Translation assistance please of characters upon the Katana wooden liner

[Jeff Blackmore]

Hello Members. I have owned a number of swords over 20 years and have been reasonably successful at translating the characters on my sword tangs. I bought a sword last year; it took many hours just to get the tsuba off. Excessive rust.

I often remove the wooden liner to better clean the scabbard and the liner, and this time a host of characters were present on both sides. Can someone assist me with a translation of what we see on the photos which I will now try to post.  Thank you in anticipation. Jeff

[Bruce Pennington]

Jeff,

That's amazing! It looks new, like made yesterday! Hopefully the translation guys can help.

 

I wonder about that star. Could it be a versioin of the Yamamoto Guntoya company:

[Ganko]

I have pulled a number of liners to clean them, but have never seen one with that much writing.

[Tom Darling]

Very interesting,     

 

 

Tom D.

[uwe]

To start with the red “stamps”, right picture:

 

”軍” (gun = army) in the star and “正式” (seishiki) in the oval cartouche....

[Furin Kazan]

The cursive stuff is beyond me lol. One one side the red stencil says 神田服部刀剣店謹製＝ Kanda Hattori Sword Store Made. Other side 七六二号= number 762, 佐野様=Sano Sama (Mr. Sano), what follows might be an address but don't quote me

[Peter Bleed]

I can't add anything beyond what Mike and Uwe have provided, but like others I have inspected quite a few gunto wood saya liners. I've never seen one with this much verbage, and- more importantly - this guy looks VERY new. Are we sure it is "vintage"?

Peter

[Stephen]

Can we see inside its mouth? In with the new crowd.

[k morita]

Hi,

 

[Brian]

Wow. That is very interesting.
Sounds like it could be wartime? A rush order? Now you need to research Hattori sword shop. Without a million links talking about Kill Bill

[SteveM]

They are still around, apparently 

 

http://www.katana-hattori.com/enkaku_01/binsen_ww2_01.html

[Bruce Pennington]

Pic added from Steve's link (in case the item isn't there in the future).

 

Wow! I've never seen a mei with the sword shop's name!

[Ray Singer]

Tha appears to be a sword by Enomoto Sadayoshi when he was working at the Hattori sword shop. At that time he also signed yoriyoshi.

[Jeff Blackmore]

Many Thanks Gentlemen for this assistance. Invaluable information. I am indebted to you. I bought this sword at auction here in Tasmania, late last year. My initial intro was not quite correct. It took me many hours to get the handle off, not the tsuba. The rust was obviously heavy and the handle had never been off until I bought it. The verbage was in excellent condition and close inspection of another photo I will post, will show the age of the liner and confirm its WW2 age. The sword is stored away and these photos were taken last year. My guess is that the sword was a family blade and was mounted for the soldier on his way to war. Would anyone care to offer an opinion?? The blade condition is uncared for and I only have the one photo to offer to this audience at this time. Again, many thanks for your assistance.

 

Sorry Gentlemen. Doesn't look like I can upload any more photos ???????

[Jeff Blackmore]

A new day and a clearer mind; I've found where to upload the photos referred to above and here they are. Cheers,

 

[cisco-san]

Tha appears to be a sword by Enomoto Sadayoshi when he was working at the Hattori sword shop. At that time he also signed yoriyoshi.

 

 

Pic added from Steve's link (in case the item isn't there in the future).

 

Wow! I've never seen a mei with the sword shop's name!

Hi, I have a similar one (signed Hattori Tanren Jo Kitau Kore) :-)

I looked for a long time for more information, but found very few only...

[SteveM]

Hello Klaus,

 

Your sword reads

服部鍛刀所造之

 

Hattori tantō-jo kore wo tsukuru 

(or, Hattori tantō-jo tsukuru kore if you read word-for-word)

 

slightly different from the reading you mention in your post. 

 

Or, in proper kanbun with Japanese reading it might be "Kore wo Hattori tanntō-jo ni te tsukurimashita".

[Bruce Pennington]

Hi, I have a similar one (signed Hattori Tanren Jo Kitau Kore) :-)

I looked for a long time for more information, but found very few only...

Thanks Klaus!

[cisco-san]

Hello Klaus,

 

Your sword reads

服部鍛刀所造之

 

Hattori tantō-jo kore wo tsukuru 

(or, Hattori tantō-jo tsukuru kore if you read word-for-word)

 

slightly different from the reading you mention in your post. 

 

Or, in proper kanbun with Japanese reading it might be "Kore wo Hattori tanntō-jo ni te tsukurimashita".

 

Hello Steve,

 

many thanks, great information!

But now I am slightly confused...sorry for asking, what does "tantō-jo" mean?

[Guido]

what does "tantō-jo" mean?

 

sword forging place

[Bugyotsuji]

鍛(える)　Tan/Kitaeru  is forging

刀 To/katana is a knife or blade

所 Tokoro/Sho/Jo is a place, as in Basho 場所

 

Edited to reflect Guido's comment below this post.

[Guido]

場 Ba/Jo is a place, as in Basho

 

That‘s a different kanji, the one used here is 所 (jo/sho/tokoro). Basho = 場所.

[Bugyotsuji]

That‘s a different kanji, the one used here is 所 (jo/sho/tokoro). Basho = 場所.

Oops, not looking closely enough. My bad. Thanks.

 

(Went back and edited to reflect this)

[cisco-san]

Many thanks for information!! Highly appreciated!