can anyone help with this one?

[kuromido]

Hello All,

I came across this gendai blade today. It has a 14 kanji mei and a well executed hot stamp. It has a very active and somewhat bazar hamon and a bright and stong mokume hada that almost looks like a cheep chinese damascus fake but this blade is no fake. Can anybody help. I took the pics in high res by mistake but can email them if you would like to see more. I tried to reduce them but the mei is so tight and small that it just gets lost.

 

Sure would like to know what you all think,

PeterD

[george trotter]

The mei is fine and hard to read in your pic. It looks like the first 4 kanji are: Minamoto AmaHide Motome........then end in Kitau kore

This means Minamoto Amahide made this to order for.... (I can't make out the customer's name).

Minamoto Amahide is Fukumoto Amahide of Seki...a WWII smith. He is listed as making both Gendaito and Showato. he is listed in Slough's book.

hope this helps,

regards

[cabowen]

Made to order for a Mr. Suzuki......

[k morita]

Hi,

The mei says : "Minamoto (no) Amahide respectfully made this sword by master Suzuki Shoun's order".

But,i don't know what master he was.

Probably a master of martial art ??

 

The following link is the same swordsmith's sword.

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=6362&p=49733&hilit=shoun#p49733

[kuromido]

As usual the board amazes me! My sincere thanks to george and Chris.

Morita-san, a special thank you for your knowledge and the way you make your additions to the pictures. It is a most welcome addition to my files as I am sure to so many others.

 

One question, I have been looking on the net and found several other blades with the "made this sword by master Suzuki Shoun's order" addition to the mei which supports the martial arts master idea rather than a single sword order. My question is: Is there any additional importance to this blade having a Hot stamp?

None of the others had it.

 

Once again,

Thanks to You all

 

PeterD

[Bruno]

Hi Peter,

 

Do you have clear photos of the blade you can share?

[leo]

Actually I find this inscription very interesting.

As Peter mentioned, there are several Amahide blades on the net carrying this "ordered by Suzuki" remark. Considered how few showa blades survived action during and after the war, there must have been hundreds of blades originally, made to order of this ominous Master Suzuki.

 

So imho this guy surely was not the owner of a fencing school, but rather a wholesaler or a high ranking civil servant, supplying the military with ordnance material!

Also, if these orders from Amahide were large, it is likely that most of them were mass produced.

 

Does anybody know more about this type of mei?

[kuromido]

Hi bruno, I have several but they were taken in super high res. I am usually taking pics of very small items in detail and forgot to change the setting. When I resize to usable 1200 X800 there is nothing left of the pic.

I may see the owner soon and will not make the same mistake. He is willing to sell but at a (I feel) very high price .

Do you have a blade from this smith?

I will see what I can do to get some pics for you,

PeterD

[Stephen]

Perhaps Master Suzuki was that of music?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzuki_method

[Toryu2020]

How nice to see Stephen back in true form...

-t