Interesting Mei and Nengo - Need help with a few characters on Shin-Gunto Blade by KANEMICHI

[tbonesullivan]

I've handled a blade by KANEMICHI before, and that one was signed 濃 州 関 住 藤 原 兼 道 作 - NOSHU SEKI JU FUJIWARA KANEMICHI SAKU. This one however is signed 濃 州 関 ? ? 兼 道 作 - NOSHU SEKI ? ?  KANEMICHI SAKU I have not been able to figure out what those two kanji are.

 

The NENGO is for 1940, or 2600 years in the imperial calendar, however the two characters before the date are not ones I recognize: ? ? 二 千 六 百 一 年 . Other examples I have seen have nothing before the numbers, or 皇紀.

Next to the date for some reason is 関 一 文 字 - SEKI ICHIMONJI, which was added after the original Mei and Nengo, for reasons I do not understand why.

 

I would post some better pictures of the cutting surface of the blade but they will not really help, as it's been quite abused by someone who thought western cleaning and polishing techiniques were appropriate for a Japanese sword. The JI isn't horrible, and a HAMON can still be seen, but the SHINOGI-JI looks like someone took a wire wheel to it.

 

Any help is greatly appreciated!

[SteveM]

The extra characters in the name are 住人 (jūnin)  (resident of). Its a slightly stylized way of writing these characters.

The prefix on the date is 紀元 (kigen). Its means "since the beginning of recorded time".

Next to the date is 菊一文字 (Kiku Ichimonji).

[Mark]

i think 1941

[mecox]

David, some examples here: