Japanese Army Officer Katana Mei

[DanTheMan]

Hey guy, and gals. Sorry if my post isn't formatted right or doesn't have all the details needed for your help.

 

To put it short I am looking to expand my military collection to include Japanese swords, and have had my eye on one for sale for the past few weeks; whats stopping me is the lack of knowledge on it that the seller isnt able to provide. I was hoping for even a general idea if the sword would be worth purchasing. My goal is to buy a wartime one to place into a shadow box with an engraved plaque stating its maker and a brief potential history of it.

 

Any help would be great and I can post a link to the listing on the antique site if you would like.

 

In the event this one doesn't seem to fit the bill for what im looking for, I am in the market for a mid to high end War Time katana that has a decent story to it if anyone has any ideas.

 

 

Thanks so much,

Dan from Virginia.

 

" I had to piece the photo together because the site doesn't allow saving of photos."

[Brian]

Without even attempting a translation yet, I can tell you that style of "chippy" cut signature is usually an indicator of one of the mass produced arsenal type wartime blades, and not mid to high end.
Expect a Showato...low end average sword.

[DanTheMan]

Understood, definitely not what I'm looking for then.

 

Many thanks for saving me that level of disappointment.

 

Back the the drawing board haha.

 

 

Dan.

[cisco-san]

Hi Dan,

 

It seems the smith is 兼宗 Kanemune and most probably a Showato (machine made blade)