Translation assistance please

Would appreciate any help with the follow mei.

I think (?) the first two Kanji are Takayama.

Thanks

Rich S

I have the first 2 as TAKA YAMA

The 3rd looks like TO (as in nihon-to) 刀

Takayama-to 高山刀: swords made at Takayama Forge (I heard they had unique features.) ...

2nd from last looks like SHO (shu) or TOKORO..... 州 or 所

probably no bloody help at all..... oh well!! :D

Cheers!

:|

Kanji are as follows;

高山刀鍛錬所作

鍛錬所 (Tanren-sho) - Forge

Thanks guys. I'd never have gotten that as

the translation. Much appreciate the help.

Rich S

Just out of curiosity...

Is it a stainless steel gunto?

Dr. T

Haven't seen the blade. A friend just sent the oshigata

to get a translation. I was looking for a smith's name

whose surname was Takayama. Who says anesthesia

doesn't kill brain cells??? :-)

Rich S

Dr. Stein

I see...

If my memory serves , there was a thread on Takayama-to/Kozan-to brand stainless steel kaigun-to over at SFI years ago... The condition of nakago in your photo looks very much like the one in the old thread...

Ah..using Dr T's hint, I searched SFI and found these pages with some info:

http://forums.swordforum.com/showthread.php?t=64298

http://forums.swordforum.com/showthread.php?t=38365

To quote W.Y. Chan from that thread (He always has excellent info and sources when it comes to WW2 swords )

Perhaps, this sword was manufactured between 1935-1945.

I have not understood what "Takayama-Sword" means for a long time.

What does Takayama mean? , I was guessing that it was a name of a place or a name of the mountain or a family name.

But, I understood that "Takayama" is a family name recently.

 

Mr. Takayama who was the master of martial-arts(Takayama-Ryu,Takayama school) of naval forces, and he designed of those swords(perhaps, material, length of sword, and length of handle etc,).

Therefore, these swords seem to have been named "Takayama Sword".

http://www.webdiva4hire.com/kenshinkan/ph_toyama.html

Brian

Hi Brian,

Thank you for the quotation of my past posting on SFI.

k Morita

FYI: Here is one Takayama-to.

Directed by Col. Takayama

http://www.toukenhataya.jp/goods/sword/sword_s147.html

Interesting.

I have a takayama sword but it does not have a hamon

The link above shows a hamon, is it a false hamon or was I unlucky to get a stainless version?

More information, it all helps.

Russell