Translation help

[Weidas]

Hello everyone,

 

i'd like to ask you for your help with translation and information on the smith. I'm putting here in order not to risk o anger the nihonto lovers - mei is from sword in kai gunto mounts and dated 1939

 

Unfortunaly there are no good quality closeups on blade.

 

Seller writes translation as "Tenshozan Fujiwara Akimitsu motte (?)shugo sakukore". is it true? i guess the sword no way can be related to Akimitsu(Igurashi) and would be grateful if somebody could list some information on smith

 

Am i right to assume, that the sword is showato, made from stainless steel?

 

thank you very much in advance

[John A Stuart]

Could it be 'motte (or wo) hushukou , or huseikou saku kore' using something like '不銹鋼' for stainless steel? Made with stainless steel. Moriyama san or others may repair this properly. Anyhow the date is 'Showa ju shi nen shi gatsu kichi jitsu', a lucky day April 1939.

 

John

[Nobody]

The writing about the steel is Taishuko (耐銹鋼 - rust resistant steel).

[Toryu2020]

Thus thanks to Mr Moriyama -

 

Tenshozan Fujiwara Akimitsu Taishuko wo motte saku kore

 

or

 

Fujiwara Akimitsu made this at Tenshozan using Anti-rust steel

 

Tenshozan was a small forge and shrine set up within the precincts of the Komyo-ji temple in Kamakura. They made swords for the Navy, based just around the bend at Yokosuka. Being as they were meant for use at sea they used a modern steel that was supposedly rust proof. There may be some hammer-monkies on this list who understand and can explain the steels better. The group that worked here was quiet small so production was limited.

 

This is a nice example, often they have been badly abused, and it is a little unusual to have the smiths name included. many of these works have the Ikari (anchor) stamp on the tang.

 

The little shrine is still there BTW - a short walk from where we used to live in Kamakura...

 

-tom

[Weidas]

Mr. Moriyama, Tom, John,

 

thank you very much for your help!!!!

[Weidas]

one more question about this sword - considering it is made of stainless steel it should be considered as showato?

Considering that it was small forge, could it produce machine made swords? could it be possible that swords were produced with traditional methods just using stainless steel?

[Rich S]

I suspect not machine made, but hand forged from stainless bar steel.

It would be considered a showato.

 

Rich S

[Toryu2020]

My understanding is that they had a factory/workshop where they did most of the work and the blades were finished at the shrine in the presence of the gods. For the most part these were machine made with a few supposedly "Han-tan" or half forged, hand-finished.

 

Definitetly Showa-to since they were made in that era, not true Gendaito as they never used 100% materials and methods as some other wartime forges did...

-tom

[Weidas]

thank you very much. so, this sword can be considered valuable from the military point of view only, not nihon-to.

 

i tried to gather information about Tenshozan, but there is very little besides general information. If i understood correctly Tenshozan forge, together with Toyokawa arsenal were main suppliers of swords and dirks for Navy. Perhaps, there is more detailed information about it available on internet?

 

thank you very much in advance for you help!

[Bazza]

thank you very much. so, this sword can be considered valuable from the military point of view only, not nihon-to.

 

Perhaps, there is more detailed information about it available on internet?

There is indeed much information on the internet. Putting 'TENSHOZAN' into google gives 221 hits...

 

Regards,

Barry Thomas.

[Weidas]

yeah, a lot. mainly general information in various sources.. some geography or even "wild games"...

[bluboxer]

There may be some hammer-monkies

:lol:

Actually there is no such thing as "stainless steel".This was a convention."Rust resistant" would be the more honest term.This steel has several alloys or metallic elements added to it during the manufacture.The main alloying element for rust resistant steel is chromium in excess of approximately 11%.

 

Alan

[Weidas]

thank you, Alan. i understand and use term "stainless steel" as basic. From what i remember from the days of studies(machinery engineering) there are plenty of different types of "mixed" steel. i just don't know the correct terms in English i guess Japanese smiths used mainly chromium as alloying element as the easiest technology of produce..