Translation Help on Hira Sankaku Yari blade from Pillow Spear

[tbonesullivan]

This is definitely one of the harder ones I have tried to translate, due to the thin tang as well as the blade condition. The last character is clearly 國 KUNI , but I can't figure out the first character, even though it is fairly clear.

 

The second character I think may be 前 ZEN? And maybe the third 共TOMO? I also can't tell if there are more characters, and whether one was destroyed by the peg hole. I've tried my best to get a picture that actually shows the characters. I may need to try again. I am guessing there is a character above KUNI under the Mekugi, which is quite faint.

[Geraint]

Hi David.

 

Sweet yari! I can't get you very much further except to say that the first two kanji are Bizen.  I don't think there would be a kanji under the mekugi ana as it is original so my guess would be a five character mei, something like, Bizen ju Tomokuni.  There are just a few here, https://nihontoclub.com/view/smiths/meisearch?page=43&order=field_smith_id_value&sort=desc  Given the shape of the yari I would be inclined to go for the Keicho guy, all this assumes that Tomo is indeed the kanji.

 

I'm sure others will chime in and get you the right answer.

 

Love the yari.

 

All the best.

[tbonesullivan]

  On 12/14/2021 at 6:48 PM, Geraint said:

Hi David.

 

Sweet yari! I can't get you very much further except to say that the first two kanji are Bizen.  I don't think there would be a kanji under the mekugi ana as it is original so my guess would be a five character mei, something like, Bizen ju Tomokuni.  There are just a few here, https://nihontoclub.com/view/smiths/meisearch?page=43&order=field_smith_id_value&sort=desc  Given the shape of the yari I would be inclined to go for the Keicho guy, all this assumes that Tomo is indeed the kanji.

 

I'm sure others will chime in and get you the right answer.

 

Love the yari.

 

All the best.

Expand  

 

I don't know how I missed the BIZEN, after I thought the second character was ZEN. I was too focused on the angled strokes on top and forgot about what was underneath.

 

There don't appear to be that many smiths in BIZEN that have a name ending in KUNI. I'm gonna need to break out the 16x magnifier and maybe some chalk to see if I can make the faint characters present a bit better.

 

It is really nice, even with the blade only being about 9cm long, with the really long tang. The hamon is great with lots of activity.

[tbonesullivan]

After playing with all kinds of angles, I managed to get some SLIGHTLY clearer photos. I think I will have to break out the chalk or something similar for some better visualization.  The third character after bizen in some way looks like 井. I even went through all 13 pages of MEI I could find beginning with BIZEN. No clues.