re: help with kanji on saya

[falconj]

Hi There All,

can anyone help with the kanji written on the katana shirasaya I have?

The writing style is a little difficult to clearly see the kanji.

I think in the larger ( photo katana b ) kanji line maybe :-

 

don't know?

gaki or tsune

yoshi

haru or suke

maybe?

the other smaller line with a lot more kanji ( photo katana b ) is a bit to hard for me to work out also,

likewise on ( photo katana a ) , but I would appreciate any help or hints

the shirasaya contains a blade signed kanemoto, but I cannot read that any where on the shirasaya kanji pictured

many thanks in advance

regards

John Falconer

Perth W.A.

[cabowen]

The first photo has the nagasa, or length, of the blade listed.

 

The second photo has the address (in Gifu Prefecture) and name of the owner (Inagaki Yoshiharu)

[Toryu2020]

長(さ)弐尺三寸五分

岐阜縣稲葉郡鵜沼町山崎

 

Naga(sa) Ni-shaku San-sun Go-bu

Gifu ken Inaba-gun Unuma-chô Yamazaki

Inagaki Yoshiharu owner　

 

Just guessing at the length as the "Ni" kanji is hard to read.

Any photos of the blade?

-t

[falconj]

Gidday there Chris and Tom,

many thanks for the help and the reply,

Tom, regarding the blade as I said I don't think the saya is original to this blade, though it all fits correctly when the saya is split.

the length of blade is 68cm ( I suppose 2 and a bit shaku ) and signed 'kanemoto' and is what looks gunome with cedar temper mix, varying along the blade length

have attached some not very good photo's of the blade, and a scan of the tang

is at strange that the name 'kanemoto' does not appear in these kanji on the blade, maybe this is why I don't think the blade is from the saya, but as usual may well be wrong, what do you think?

thanks again

regards

John Falconer

Perth W.A.

[Toryu2020]

John!

Been a long time since we have caught up. What I am seeing is just an owners catalog-ing of his own blade, may be a surrender document. Someone may have wanted his piece returned so when he surrendered it he made the sayagaki. I would check the length (sun,shaku) carefully. If it matches you would seem to have a decent example of a late generation Kanemoto but not any kind of attribution on the scabbard...

-t

[falconj]

Yes Tom, you are right, it has been far to long since our last chat,

At your suggestion, I have remeasured the 'hacho' ( is that right? ) length, and it is 69.7cm not 68.00 as I first assumed

the 'sori' is 12cm

the kissaki is 4.0cm, ( is that chu-kissaki or o-kissaki ? )

thanks again for your help again, sounds good

regards

John Falconer

Perth

W.A.

[Jean]

I have never seen such a sori :D

[falconj]

aaaaaargg, you are right Jean,

that of course should read sori 1.2cm or 12mm

thanks

John Falconer

[Toryu2020]

and John I would call it Ôkissaki,

has more to do with the placement of the yokote than overall dimensions I am thinkin.

-t

[David Flynn]

John, this sword could be by Kaneko, who was named and signed Kanemoto in 1944.

See you at the Shinsa.

[falconj]

thanks Dave,

I doubt it, but it's only 2 more sleeps and yes, I will see you there,

can't remember whose the first to buy the drinks, maybe yours from memory :lol:

really looking forward to this one!!

regards

John