Here's a doozy

[firebee1976]

I found this at a pawn shop over in Eugene and I'm thinking about buying it, but I want to know more about it. Can anybody help me with some of the translation on this mei. I'm new to translation of kanji and this blade is rusted, which makes it ten times harder for me to try translating. I've sent this to a couple of dealers and collectors, but they had a hard time offering any thoughts on identification, so any help I can get would be greatly appreciated.

 

You can look at the mei here

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=72023828&albumID=2712667&imageID=50148274

[Guido]

Looks like Kagemitsu 景光.

[reinhard]

Signed on the sashi-omote, so you better not get too excited.

 

reinhard

[drbvac]

Good be! Mitsu for sure - could it be Kane?

[firebee1976]

Thanks for the help guys... I'll try and figure it out from here.

[Clive Sinclaire]

Gentlemen

I am sure that on this occasion Guido is correct and that it is KAGEMITSU, however, do I detect the character JU above KAGE in which case one might also expect BISHU OSAFUNE? The picture is very poor but if Reinhard is correct then it is certainly cannot be the important Kagemitsu, how sad.

Regards

Clive

[firebee1976]

Again... I want to thank everybody for the help they've given me with identifying this blade. Their was a consensus here and among the people that I e-mailed that the blade was forged by Kagemitsu of the Kaga province. Their are two smiths named kagemitsu that are from the Kaga province.

 

Based on the mei and what the blade looks like, I've concluded that this particular katana was made by the kanbun period kagemitsu... not the earlier kagemitsu that forged blades in the Kaga province around the mid-late 1300s.

 

Again... Thanks for the help.