Hello, New to this site. These swords found behind a wall we were replacing. Will anyone please help with the translation? Thanks, Glenn

[GH Deming]

 

[Brian]

Please post the 1st pic the right way up.

[SteveM]

Sword made by Bizen-no-kuni Toshimune, on the occasion of the Kōhachiman Shrine being elevated to the status of a "prefectural shrine" in January of 1944 1945 (typo fixed, thanks to Thomas's keen eye).

[Bruce Pennington]

Behind a wall........

 

Lucky find Glenn!

[Bazza]

Bizen Toshimune is in Ono's GENDAI TOKO MEIKAN.   Decades ago I used to have a sword made by him, though no special inscriptions, just signed and dated.

 

BaZZa.

[Peter Bleed]

Glenn, rip down more walls!

 

[Kiipu]

Glenn, on the large wooden scabbard, are those metal bands or is it just tape?

 

What is inside the small wooden scabbard?  The one with the label marked as below.

準備 = Junbi = Preparation.

刀第一六一號 = Sword Number 161.

 

For your edification, below is a link to a brief article about handling Japanese swords.

Manual Of How To Handle And Take Care Of Swords

[SteveM]

I'm dying to hear about how you found it, but in any case if this is a WW2 era sword that has been hidden away, untouched, since the 1940s, it is a rare item in an extraordinary state of preservation (assuming the person who put it behind the wall didn't touch it or leave any rusting fingerprints on it). 

[paul tsubadotinfo]

I would like to know where to find such a wall. Was it in Japan?