Translation of mei (?) on nakago of Japanese sword

[Garrett Petrie]

Greetings,

 

I'm unsure of how this all works, but I have a question, and I don't know how complicated it is...

 

I have just inherited an older Japanese sword, a wakizashi (I believe is what it's properly called), that my Grandfather brought back from  Japan in WWII.

 

I would like to know more about it.

 

Any assistance is appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance for your time and attention to my query.

 

Have a great day

 

G. D. Petrie 

[ROKUJURO]

Garret,

welcome to the NMB!

I think I can read (or guess) BIZEN OSAFUNE SUKEHISA. It looks as if someone has ground the rust off of the NAKAGO (= tang) to make reading the MEI easier, but that was a bad idea as this rust is mainly what we call patina. It is important for an assessment of the age of the blade.

I have no books on blades so I cannot tell you when this smith was working, and the authenticity of the signature is still another thing. There were so many copied/faked signatures even on good blades! 

[uwe]

Small correction “備州長舩祐久” (Bishū…).
Maybe the guy from Keiō?! Hard to tell with a cleaned tang, but nakago-jiri let me think Keiō rather than Kyōroku. I’m sure someone more knowledgeable can chime in…

 

 

 

[ROKUJURO]

Of course, Uwe! Thank you!

[Garrett Petrie]

10 hours ago, ROKUJURO said:

Garret,

welcome to the NMB!

I think I can read (or guess) BIZEN OSAFUNE SUKEHISA. It looks as if someone has ground the rust off of the NAKAGO (= tang) to make reading the MEI easier, but that was a bad idea as this rust is mainly what we call patina. It is important for an assessment of the age of the blade.

I have no books on blades so I cannot tell you when this smith was working, and the authenticity of the signature is still another thing. There were so many copied/faked signatures even on good blades! 

Good morning,

 

Thank you, glad to be here.

 

I regret that I could not be involved with the care of this blade, from the time it left Japan (I would not be born until a few decades later) I assure you, however, that I had absolutely nothing to do with cleaning the nakago. I'm a complete newbie, but at least I know better than that. 🙂

 

Unfortunately, the sword was abused a bit. It's edge is chipped, and there is also ample rust all along the full length of the blade. The koshirae is all there (or at least mostly there) but is in very poor condition. Kashira is horn, with gold shitodome, and fuchi is copper. White samegawa (maybe originally applied in pieces, or has broken into separate sections over the years) is wrapped in ito I can't identify with certainly, but maybe cotton (?). The menuki are bronze, and I am not certain what they are representing. The tsuba is iron, and relatively plain. It has had copper shims(?) applied, so maybe was originally on a different blade? It's just a basic round tsuba, with very limited engraving. The saya was lacquered with splintered bamboo and tiny chips of shell/pearl added. The saya is missing the koiguchi, and the kurigata. The saya's glue let go some time ago and it's in two separate pieces now. It appears as if it was inlet for a secondary blade, on the ura side, but I never even saw that and it's long gone now either way. 

 

My father recalled it being in pristine condition. Apparently, it was a beautiful sword when he first saw it as a small child. 

 

I am completely out of my depth, but I would be greatly fulfilled if I were able to see it restored to it's former glory. I believe a logical first step is to attempt to find out what it is I'm working with. I sincerely appreciate the time and effort that you have put into helping me with this critical aspect of the process.

 

My most humble and heartfelt thanks.

 

Have a great day 

[uwe]

Can you provide some meaningful pics of the whole convolute, Garrett?

[Garrett Petrie]

I will try... I haven't had too much luck sharing pictures to this forum, so far. File size too large, apparently...

 

But here goes.

[Garrett Petrie]

"one file was greater than 2.93MB and was skipped"...

 

The photo I attempted to share is 4.7MB...

 

Regrettably, I'm not too savvy with computers and I'm trying to do this from my cellphone..m

 

 

 

 

[Garrett Petrie]

On 3/30/2023 at 11:26 AM, uwe said:

Can you provide some meaningful pics of the whole convolute, Garrett?

Apparently not...

 

I'll attempt to locate some assistance on my end, and get back to you.

 

Thanks for your patience.

[jesse]

Garrett, Try to save the picture under a different format.

If you save it as a .png it will reduce the file size greatly.

 

Warm Regards,

 

[Garrett Petrie]

I don't know how to post images, as a link to a file on a different server. I don't want to bog down this server with too many images. Please be patient with me, as I figure all this stuff out...

 

In the meantime, this is a far better image of the nakago. I think the kanji is far more legible.

 

Thanks again 

[Bugyotsuji]

When you choose a photo to upload, Garrett, you may see an option at the foot of that page to choose a size for posting.

 

My iPhone gives me Full size, Large, Medium and Small. I usually choose Large if the original is too big for the site.

[Garrett Petrie]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/4SdCt3ZPqdVSfzcu9

[Garrett Petrie]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/L5eyNjcDMu8cvrJo7

[Garrett Petrie]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/gh7VNMsNey7XJ1Yq8

[Garrett Petrie]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/3QzyDVb7zxpkUNUc6

[DTM72]

Something that may also help with loading pics, load one pic at a time. If you choose more than one, it sometimes causes trouble.

[Garrett Petrie]

Ok..

 

Well I tried.

 

 This is a very interesting place to poke around in. But I still haven't learned anything more about the sword I posted pictures of...

 

I do appreciate the time a couple of your have taken to try and help me out though.

 

Regards 

 

[Conway S]

Garrett, 

 

Have you searched the Swordsmith Index on the Nihonto Club site? @uwe mentioned a smith during the Keiō era whose Mei reads 備州長船住横山祐久作.

 

https://nihontoclub.com/view/smiths/meisearch?page=12&type=All&mei_op=starts&mei=備州長

 

Conway

[Garrett Petrie]

@Conway S

 

I'll have to check it out. I regret that I'm not to savvy with most things related to this technology.

 

I really appreciate the time and patience. 

 

Thanks