Kai Gunto Mei

[George KN]

Hi guys,

 

Hoping someone would be kind enough to help me again! I've tried translating this, but I just can't seem to find the matching characters for a bunch of these kanji... (Any book recommendations for a decent reference list beyond Sesko's Swordsmiths would be very welcome )

 

 

(The sword literally only arrived at my home today fifteen minutes before I had to leave for a ten day trip to Germany just, so apologies for the slight blurring - I've added the original auction photos to help too)

 

Thanks, 

 George

[xiayang]

濃州関住正行作 = Nōshū Seki-jū Masayuki saku

昭和十八年 = Shōwa 18 (1943 CE)

[George KN]

Thank you Jan!! Wow that was quick, amazing! 

 

I guess I'll spend the rest of the train and flight later researching 

 

I feel a bit better about not recognising some of those kanji too - they really are quite different! (Like the top grid of 濃 seems to be completely missing etc - much for me to learn about I suspect)

[mecox]

After looking further....this is MASAYUKI (正行),  but I dont think it is  Miwa Tomoo (三輪友雄), born August 8th 1895.   As he used taka-no- ha yasurime and was mostly before 1943.  

Here is similar example from Japanese Sword Index     

 

[George KN]

Apologies for the delay, I'm back home now with the blade in hand properly.

 

Which Masayuki could it be though? Sesko only lists two Showa smiths of that name:

 

MASAYUKI (正行), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Ōsaka – “Ikeda Masayuki kore o saku” (池田正行作之), “[Swastika] Masayuki” (卍正行), real name Ikeda Tatsuo (池田辰男), born November 20th 1938, he studied from 1954 under his father Masahisa (正久) (see picture right)
 

MASAYUKI (正行), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Gifu – “Masayuki” (正行), real name Miwa Tomoo (三輪友雄), born August 8th 1895, he worked in Seki as guntō smith

And the first one there would have been a toddler at the time that was signed... (Not to mention there is no swastika)

[Kiipu]

Is that a large or small Seki 関 stamp?  Can you measure the height of the stamp?

 

Subassembly Number

一一五三 = 1153.

[mecox]

@George KN   George, well looks like yours is probably Miwa Masayuki.  Its a bit confusing and as you note Ikeda would be too young.  I found some other examples that have both taka-no-ha and sujikai filing, and although mei changes a bit looks to be the same smith.

It is possible for dated blades he used taka-no-ha earlier and Sho stamp? (1941, 1942) and sujikai later with Seki stamp? (1943).    But still needs more study. 

Miwa Masayuki is listed in 1940 in Seki Token Kaji Association and also to have registered as a Seki swordsmith in Showa 14 (1939) October 26. 

 

         

 

  

 

 

 

[George KN]

15 hours ago, Kiipu said:

Is that a large or small Seki 関 stamp?  Can you measure the height of the stamp?

I believe it is the large Seki stamp - it is 5mm tall by 4mm wide. Apart from the painted sub assembly number, the only other marking is that single dot at the bottom of the nakago. Thanks for confirming the sub assembly number, it definitely matches all the other roman numerals on the fittings then! I've uploaded more pics of the blade and fittings on the original military thread here if you're interested and haven't seen it already: https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/51690-how-to-valuerank-showato

 

12 hours ago, mecox said:

It is possible for dated blades he used taka-no-ha earlier and Sho stamp? (1941, 1942) and sujikai later with Seki stamp? (1943).    But still needs more study. 

This is really interesting thanks! There are two other gunto Masayuki I didn't mention in Sesko, but he lists them using different characters to mine:

 

MASAYUKI (正之), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Saitama – “Masayuki” (正之), family name Ōzawa (小澤), he worked as guntō smith, ryōkō no retsu (Akihide)

MASAYUKI (正幸), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Aichi – “Masayuki” (正幸), family name Ōzawa (小沢), he worked as guntō smith, ryōkō no retsu (Akihide)

And there are also two other recent threads I've found with Masayuki guntos:

https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/50546-translation-mei-tang-help-wanted/ 
https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/41159-new-sword-please-look/

Unsure if that's at all helpful, but there does seem to be quite a few of them floating around! 

[Bruce Pennington]

FWIW - I have one other Masayuki on file with 2 dots:

 

The dots are a mystery.  Used to think they were done by fittings shops (and still could be) but I've got one or two on file from a hundred years back or so.  This one is a Koto era waki:

[George KN]

I've been mulling over the dots... It doesn't seem like something you'd do for fittings, especially since the paint and numbers are used for that on gunto instead. It feels like something only someone actively working with the steel would add, like the polisher or the smith themselves.

 

Perhaps it's a reference to how many times the nakago has been adjusted? (Interesting your example has two ana) Or just a way the smith or polisher was tracking blades made at the same time? (This would help explain the fairly low number of dots on blades I've seen)

Not sure about the Koto one though! If that was off a suriage blade where the mune was moved it would indeed heavily suggest something a polisher added rather than the original smith... Maybe even a mei of sorts with that pattern of five.

[Bruce Pennington]

And just to make you crazy, Ha!, there are dots at the mune jiri, as well as the ones with dots counting as high as 11: