Help on Older Katana with worn mei

[tbonesullivan]

I think that there are 5 characters in the mei, but there could also be four. One I'm pretty sure is 秀 HIDE, and above that looks like one way I have seen 兼 KANE drawn, though I am not sure. The first character looks like maybe 少, and then under it is 珍?

 

I tried to get the best pictures I could. I tried the corn starch trick but it wasn't sticking right.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Ray Singer]

Looks like 山城守秀__. Yamashiro (no) kami Hide__

 

There is a 秀辰 (Hidetoki) but I am not so sure the last kanji looks like toki.  

Here is Markus' writeup on Hidetoki.

HIDETOKI (秀辰), 1st gen., Shōhō (正保, 1644-1648), Settsu – “Seki-jū Yamashiro no Kami Fujiwara Hidetoki” (関住山城守藤原秀辰), “Yamashiro no Kami Fujiwara Hidetoki” (山城守藤原秀辰), “Yamashiro no Kami Hidetoki” (山城守秀辰), he came originally from Mino province and belonged to the local Toku´in school (得印), first name Gonbei (権兵衛), he studied under the 3rd gen. Masatsune (政常) and went later to Ōsaka but worked also in Edo, wazamono, chūjō-saku

 

HIDETOKI (秀辰), 2nd gen., Enpō (延宝, 1673-1681), Musashi – “Hitachi no Kami Hidetoki” (常陸守秀辰), “Yamashiro no Kami Fujiwara Hidetoki” (山城守藤原秀辰), “Hidetoki” (秀辰), first name Zen´emon (善右衛門), he later took over the first name Gonbei (権兵衛), according to a theory he was the son of Ōmi no Kami Fujiwara Kiyoshige (近江守藤原清重), he moved later in his career from Ōsaka to Edo

[ROKUJURO]

David,

there are some tricks to improve the readability:

post pictures of the NAKAGO 

-  taken directly from above

-  with light from the side

-  well focused

-  against a dark background to get a good contrast

and presented as cut-out 

[Ray Singer]

I did a quick search and do not see any other smiths documented aside from Hidetoki who used the 山城守 title and whose name starts Hide. A few thoughts.

• The last kanji looks a bit like tsugu (次) - 山城守秀次
• If there were four kanji or if the fifth were saku, I would read this as 山城守秀 - Yamashiro Morihide, but it does appear to be a title so the question is what that last kanji is
• The blade appears to be Shinto

 

 

[tbonesullivan]

It definitely appears to be a 5th character. I tried to get a good side lighting setup, but unfortunately I don't have access to one. I did manage to take a few more pictures that show some more strokes, but it's hard to get a photo that shows them all at the sale time. I'm thinking of doing a rubbing, now if only I had the correct paper and other materials to do one.

[Ray Singer]

I am still at 秀次 but maybe others have a different idea.

[tbonesullivan]

1 hour ago, Ray Singer said:

I am still at 秀次 but maybe others have a different idea.

I am also thinking that as well, based on the stylization of the other Kanji.  I did a pretty good drawing of it (I think) at the online character finder, and that is one of the characters that comes up, with the other being 氷.  

 

 

https://kanji.sljfaq.org/

[Ron M]

Hey folks here is a snap of my hidetoki if it’s comparable.

Regards

[tbonesullivan]

21 hours ago, Ron M said:

Hey folks here is a snap of my hidetoki if it’s comparable.

Regards

 

Thanks! I also found some other examples, and the last character on definitely looks like it is not TOKI. The style also doesn't match.

 

https://world.seiyud...m/product/wa-080513/

 

https://sword-auction.com/en/product/12585/as17269-脇差山城守秀辰/