Meiji knife brand

[Kurikata]

Hello,

 

I found this mark on a Japanese knife blade.

 

Can someone provide the translation ?

 

A great thank you. 

[MauroP]

The transcription is 哥德呀, but no idea how to read it.

[John C]

Not sure it's accurate, however google app has it as Gordeku. 

 

John C.

[Kurikata]

A guess, could it be the transcription of the French brand "Cardeilhac" into kanji ? The blade seems to have been made by this famous french silversmith name, end of 19th century in France.

[xiayang]

2 hours ago, Kurikata said:

A guess, could it be the transcription of the French brand "Cardeilhac" into kanji ? The blade seems to have been made by this famous french silversmith name, end of 19th century in France.

 

Western names are usually transliterated phonetically into Japanese using katakana, so that would be somewhat unusual, I suppose.  That said, one possible reading of 哥德呀 in Japanese would indeed be Kadeya which does sound a bit like Cardeilhac.

Alternatively, could it have been a Chinese transliteration instead?  The standard Chinese reading of 哥德呀 is Gedeya, and all three characters are very commonly used for Western names.

 

[Kurikata]

A great Thank you Jan, for your proposal. I'll take option 1 (Japanese transcription of Kadeya) as the knives are Japanese kozuka.