Mei Translation And Mysterious Mon...

[VehementKnives]

Greetings from the Upper Peninsula!

I recently acquired this katana, and was directed to this group to get more info. It came to me in shirasaya. Habaki has same 3 marks as the blue on nakago. (I'm guessing this was some sort of temporary catalogue used internally wherever this was before previous owner. Active hamon, and my eyes may not be trained enough to find hada...

Based on one source, I have a translation of: No Kawa Kikusumi Okada Yoshi Kiku Ugawa Rika Okada.

 

About 4 hours of digging has led me to believe that there are some synonyms at play or at least archaic usage. "Of leather charcoal" doesn't seem right. Haha! Anyway, thanks in advance and I'll skip the next 3 thousand words in lieu of some photos.

[SteveM]

Hello 

 

濃洲関住岡田兼義作之

Noshū Seki-jū Okada Kaneyoshi saku kore 

 

Wartime blade (note the Showa stamp above the name). Smith's name is "Okada Kaneyoshi". You can find more info if you do a search. 

[VehementKnives]

Yes!! Thank you Steve! Now comes the fun part, more digging! I've been having a blast with all this research. Thanks again!

[VehementKnives]

 

Is it typical for Gunto to get remounted in Shirasaya? And is the activity of the hamon indicative of anything different than the typical mass-produced fare? I'm not hoping to find a secret, priceless diamond in the rough. Honestly, I'm eager to dive into this as a project and would hate to screw with something I shouldn't. Haha!

Blade is actually in pretty great condition, save a couple indelible fingerprints.

[SteveM]

Nowadays I don't think its uncommon to see war blades, especially those in good condition, being kept in shirasaya. The Showa stamp is really a good indicator of what kind of blade it is. Occam's razor being what it is, I'd say you have an arsenal blade.  

[VehementKnives]

Haha! Roger that. Thanks!

[PNSSHOGUN]

There are certainly different grades of Showato, the higher grades can be very nice blades indeed. There are countless numbers of wartime smiths pumping out mass produced blades of standard quality. We would definitely need to see photos of the blade & Hamon to give you a better idea of what you have.