Help With Identifing The Smith Of Our Seki Province Katana From The Family Of A Close Friend

[Noricum]

Dear Nihonto Message Board,

my name is Matthias and iam from Germany, through a friend of my family who is from Japan i have received a sword that belonged
to his Father, who was an acomplished Kendoka (the family name was Masuda) and was a member of the Japanese Police Force.
The Sword was forged in 1940 as one side of the tang states, the other side shows the kanji for the Province Seki and Shaku/produced (at the end)
in between are 3 Kanji which we cannot read as they are probably some old style. I would like to know who made the sword I hope you may help us!
I made two pictures of the tang one whit red rust still on and one whit red rust removed (where it is kind of harder to read as the black patina acts just like camoflage).



Thank you and kind regards,
Matthias

[Stephen]

All pix are the same, anyway Seki Kanemasa

[ROKUJURO]

Matthias,

welcome to the NMB!

Please dont touch the NAKAGO except wiping it with a dry cotton cloth! Don't remove anything that could affect the value!

There might be a SEKI arsenal stamp above the MEI, difficult to see on the photo. This could indicate a mass produced (not traditionally forged) blade.

MEI is indeed SEKI KANEMASA SAKU (not Shaku).

[Noricum]

Thank you very much! There is a Showa Stamp above the Signature and I was able to find a blade were the Signature matches exactly and it must be
made by the same person (also you can see the same stamp there):

http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/Japanese-militaria/another-Japanese-sword-id-please-703551/

Since the blade is from Seki i guess we can exclude all non Gifu smiths which worked during Showa, which leaves
the following smiths signing Kanemasa:

Ezaki Matsutaro (1882-1961)
Kuriyama Susumu (Gunto Smith, died 1943)
Masunouchi Kezaburo (?)
Toki Yoshihira (1897 - 1980)
Kurimoto Shoichi (1918- ?)
Ono Masaki (1923 - ) (I guess not, Signature looks different)

So which Kanemasa do we have here?

Thank you,
Matthias



 

[vajo]

Can't see any pictures.

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