Help with 6 or 7 Character Mei

[tbonesullivan]

This is from a pretty typical Shin-Gunto with a shorter blade, though we think the blade may be pre-showa. The spacing of the characters is somewhat odd, so I can't tell if there are 6 or 7 characters, or maybe even 8?

 

The best I was able to come up with is: 一 長 守  六 ? 俊 之 - ICHI NAGA KAMI ROKU ? TOSHI KORE.

 

I have considered that the first "two" may just be an extended 長 NAGA or OSA.

 

I'm also thinking that the ROKU could also be DAI 大? The second to last character I've also considered 波 NAMI, 義 YOSHI, or 城 SHIRO. The character before that, I have no idea.

 

Most of the signatures I look at now I'm able to find a few characters I'm confident in, and use those to figure out the rest, but on this one I am kinda lost, which is a bit disheartening.

[uwe]

It might be "一文字天秀鍛之" (Ichimonji Amahide kitau kore).

[tbonesullivan]

2 hours ago, uwe said:

It might be "一文字天秀鍛之" (Ichimonji Amahide kitau kore).

That definitely looks promising. Thank you so much! I would guess ICHIMONJI is some type of title? I haven't seen it before in any MEI that I have looked at. The Oshigata I can find are all a bit more "neater" but it definitely looks right.

 

鍛之 means "forged this"? 

 

Quick search found this example, which looks a lot more like the signature on the one I'm looking at, both in style and letters. : https://sword-auction.com/en/product/6493/as21260-刀：一文字天秀鍛之/

[uwe]

“鍛“ is a bit sloppy written and could cause some headaches in this case 😉

[PNSSHOGUN]

If you check in the articles section Malcolm Cox has a very informative PDF on Amahide.

[Bruce Pennington]

@tbonesullivan - David, I have blades on file from Amahide with both showa and seki stamps.  Any shots of stamping on the blade?  I also have one with seppa marked with both katakana and numbers.  Any of that?

[tbonesullivan]

4 hours ago, Bruce Pennington said:

@tbonesullivan - David, I have blades on file from Amahide with both showa and seki stamps.  Any shots of stamping on the blade?  I also have one with seppa marked with both katakana and numbers.  Any of that?

I checked the blade, and there are not any arsenal stamps at all, which is definitely interesting. It's also actually a Wakizashi about 21 inches long, with a Type 98 Handle. I'll try to get some more pictures next week when I have time.