Katana find

[Hs132]

Hello, here is more of the story on the blade. It belongs to a 75 year old or so Korean/Vietnam US Marine Vet. here in Oceanside, CA. The WW2 Marine Vet passed away earlier this year and they had been close friends for decades. The older Vet. had told him the 3 swords he had were his upon his passinng. The relatives disputed this but told him to pick one. He intentionally chose the weakest appearing one and no more words were spoken. Best, Bill

[Toryu2020]

Bill -

Just to add my bit, none of which hasn't been said already really;

 

二つ同　小川重良（花押）分石　斉藤長式所持之

 

Omote - Futatsu-Do (Cut) Ogawa Shigeyoshi w/Kao Ura - Bunkoku Saito Nagamochi Shoji Kore

Most of which has already been rendered as;

Ogawa Shigeyoshi (cut) two bodies (with this sword)

Bunkoku

Saito Nagamochi Carried (owns) this

 

As has already been said your inlay appears to be recent and the presence of all that red rust suggests recent "aging". The To character (藤) if it even is that is rather poorly presented as are some of the other kanji - The Bunkoku is likely a Go, or naming for the sword - a very odd choice. Doesn't seem to make sense if you say Bunseki or "separated rock" but that is a literal translation and not how it would be written in Japanese - 石割　or Sekiwaru would be more likely as in "Rock splitter". If we consider this as "Koku" a unit of rice it might make sense in Japanese but I can't seem to make it work which suggests this might be a clever fake by someone who knows kanji but maybe not Japanese...

-tom