Silver signature?

[Ronald Aguirre]

Hello all! I could use some help with this sword. I haven’t bought it yet, but I was wondering if I could get opinion on the authenticity and a translation of the maker. 

[moriarty]

Greetings Ronald, 

 

The signature on the blade seems to be 多々良-(Tatara), couldn't find any smith by that signature, but maybe someone with more info available will! 

 

I assume the “silver” is just chalk utilized to enhance the view of the mei, as evidenced by the fading first character. 

 

Sword seems to be outfitted as a civilian post-war gunto? Maybe someone else can provide more info on that topic

[Toryu2020]

Look for Tatara Nagayuki - photos may not compare well to the work of this smith...

 

-t

[GeorgeLuucas]

You can see the yasurime when you zoom in. It looks like an exterior ink over an otherwise mumei nakago.
 

Kind of like kinpun mei but… Ginpun mei? Interesting! 
 

I don’t think the koshirae is any kind of ww2 gunto.

Looking forward to others observations. 

Cheers,

-Sam 
 

 

Edited Monday at 09:25 PM by GeorgeLuucas
I should note that I am no expert.

[Geraint]

The koshirae is simply a plain copper handachi koshirae, (assuming that it has a kurikata).  I quite like it but it is  rather utilitarian.

 

All the best.

[Tsuku]

2 hours ago, GeorgeLuucas said:

Kind of like kinpun mei but… Ginpun mei? Interesting! 

 

Kinpun-mei, like shu-mei, are lacquer signatures. This appears inset, so would be properly a ginzōgan-mei.

The letter of the old Hon'ami regulations said that these should be applied to shortened blades made between Ōei (1394-1428) and Bunmei (1469-1487). There are a handful of blades at Jūyō with ginzōgan-mei, though, and some of them are substantially earlier or later than this time period. So... who knows?

[GeorgeLuucas]

That makes sense, thank you @Tsuku
 

I was thinking it looked penned on, rather than inset. But looking at the nakago ana, now I’m thinking it is inset like you say. At any rate, I’d love to see some more pictures of it
 

All the best,

-Sam 

[Rivkin]

Its something quite weird.

Nakago is more or less clearly 20th century or at least no later than the very end of Edo.

Sugata which is as straight as they come, uncommon kissaki proportions. Silver inlaid signature which makes little sense. But at the same time everything is done with diligence, it does not have the aura of some crappy thing churned out in search for a random buyer.

This is the kind of case where I would look at activity and if its good, it can still be a decent blade, with a puzzle.