Any idea as to the maker? Here's one I can't find in any of my books.

[kealpe]

I could figure out a few of the correctors but not even close to figuring this one. Any help would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks, Keith 

[xiayang]

The lower part of the mei is cut off.

 

播磨大掾藤 = Harima Daijō Fuji...

[kealpe]

I thought some of the signature was cut off when the sword was shortened. This only shows where it was made? Or is this part of the smith's name?

 

Thanks, Keith

[Brian]

And his assumed title....
Harima Daijo Fujiwara.....xx
So you are missing the swordsmith's name. Using this page http://www.sho-shin.com/titles.htm you can narrow it down to a few smiths (if it's not gimei) and then you'll have to look at their work to compare.

[Geraint]

Dear Keith.

 

The ones who spring immeditely to mind are the Shigetaka smiths but.......

 

If you have a look here, https://markussesko.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/nihontocompendium-e1.pdf  scroll down to page 83.  The list is fortunatley npt that long for this specific title.  Just down to searching for oshigata and matching.

 

( In this case the word 'just' should be understood in the context of nihonto where its meaning is ' endless hours of trawling the internet and all available books whose results will be deeply contradictory and prove to have a reliability factor of plus or minus 80% only to find that when you have convinced yourself of an outcome everyone you show it to will profoundly disagree with your conclusion'.) 

 

Have fun!

 

All the best.

[DTM72]

Based only on signature style, I would guess Nidai Shigetaka.

[kealpe]

Thanks guys,

 

Much appreciate the help. Crazy someone would cut off the signature, but I guess back then they never thought someone 400 years in the future would care. I added a few pics, maybe someone would be able to tell the sword style. This was an unmolested sword. Scabbard in the pic is the wrong one for this sword.  Bad part is the blade has a chip just past the habaki, not sure if it could be corrected by polishing and redoing the edge. Blade with a single and double grove. Beautiful dragons on all hardware. 

[kealpe]

One more pic. Habaki doesn't want to come off, so I left it alone. 

[kealpe]

[kealpe]

Here's a close up of the lower tang, you can see the start of the next character. 

[kealpe]

If you look at the bottom of my tang, you can see the start of the next character. I added another tang and was wondering if this is the maker?

 

Thanks, Keith

[Geraint]

Dear Keith.

 

Love the koshirae, I can see why you bought this one.  This is not exhaustive but generally speaking the Shigetaka lineage signs with Echizen ju as a prefix, often signing the first three kanji on the other side of the nakago to the mei.  Noting on yours I suppose?  A side by side comparison looking at the kanji in detail might help but if this were mine I wouldn't jump to the conclusion just yet.

 

Let us know what you find and, once again, a very nice sword.

 

All the best.

[DTM72]

I owned a wakizashi by nidai shigetaka. Due to the shorter nakago, Echizen Jyu was on the opposite side of the Harima Daijo Fujiwara Shigetaka. Does yours have Echizen Jyu on the opposite side? 

[Geraint]

Hi keith.

 

The mei on your sword would read Fujiwara followed by the smiths name so the little bit left of the kanji is the start of the wara kanji. Pewrsonally I don't think this is quite the handwriting style of the Shigetaka smiths but I'm still looking.

 

All the best.

[kealpe]

Thanks for all the help, guys. Was hoping that the furniture and the groves might help discover the smith. Looking at the tang with a magnifier glass shows horizontal file marks all the way across the tang with leftward slanting file marks closer to the habaki on the upper half of the tang. Almost impossible to see with the eye.  

[kealpe]

I almost forgot!

 

Hi Dan,

No, my tang doesn't have any characters on the other side.