Gendaito made December 1945???

[Bruce Pennington]

I thought sword production was stopped after the war and not allowed to begin again until 1953ish.  Here is a blade made by:

 

"GENDAITO by KATO TAKAO   (69.6 cm.)

This is a beautiful Gendaito made by Kato Takao, born in 1922 in Gifu, Mino Province and he is descended from the famous twenty-three generations of Kanefusa, which began in the swordmaking area of Seki in the mid-fifteenth century. He specialized in Bizen, Soshu and Mino styles, using Itame Hada and O-Midare Choji Hamon. This sword has a 69.6 cm. cutting edge, is signed "Mino Seki Ju Fujiwara Takao" and dated "Showa Ni Ju Nen Ju Ni Gatsu Kichi Nichi" (1945) and is mounted in the original Shirasaya inscribed with a Sayagaki. This maker is featured in the Gendai Toko Meikan."

 

Found at CG Fine Arts HERE.

 

[Kiipu]

濃州関住藤原孝雄 = Nōshū Seki jū Fujiwara Takao.

 

[Bryce]

G'day Bruce,

Is that date actually Showa 50?

Cheers,

Bryce

[Nobody]

The date is 昭和五十年十二月吉日 - Showa 50th year (1975) ……………

[Bruce Pennington]

DOHHH!  Sorry guys!  I at first wondered about that vertical line between the two horizontals, but since I didn't see any others, I wrote it off to a mis-stroke.  Even knowing, now, it's a "5", it's not easy to see it as such the way it was written.

 

Oh well, back to the search engine!