Translation Assistance If Possible

[nickm]

Story goes I have found a sword for sale essentially hundreds of miles away for me and the fellow is hard to get pictures from so I managed one of the signature and and wondering if anyone can tell me anything they see prior to me taking a potentially worthless road trip.. As always thank you to anyone who has the time and hopefully can see something...

[Ray Singer]

Is that the complete mei? Perhaps: 

 

豊後守__大動

Bungo (no) kami  __  Daidō

[Geraint]

So!  Road trip. Huh?

 

Look forward to the results.

 

All the best.

[nickm]

jury is still out but looking that way.. Nature of the game I guess. Pressing for more pictures..

[SteveM]

My guess:

 

豊後守囗六助

 

Bungo-no-kami ? rokusuke　　

 

But when I search for the above, or combinations of the above, I get no worthwhile hits. 

 

I really wonder if this sword is worth the several hundred miles road trip. If the seller is unable or unwilling to provide pictures, particularly of the hamon, I wouldn't bother with making such a trip when there are so many other swords out there. 

 

Edit: I think the 5th kanji is 大, as Ray said. So maybe 大助？Anyway, I still get no validation when I search on that. 

[nickm]

I've been thinking about it all day and basically agree with your sentiment Steve. I appreciate the assistance as always and think I will let this one go and keep on searching

[nickm]

finally got a few pics out of them.. still pressing for more..

[nickm]

Just got a few more pictures of the Mei.. And the blade. Wanted to post that for opinions before I moved on

[Ray Singer]

I would still lean towards this being 大動 (Daidō). Looks like a nice piece. Jihada may be a bit coarse near the habaki-moto (difficult to make out in the photo).

 

[nickm]

I hope you are aware of how useful a fellow you are Ray. To tons of people on this forum you are very eliminating gentleman. Any idea as to age?

[Ray Singer]

Hi Nick, please see attached. If this is the same smith, his working period would be around Kanbun 1661. Credit to Markus Sesko for this record.

 

 

Any idea as to age?

 

[Ganko]

You can find him listed in Hawleys as DAI 3. The fourth character is another form of ju. Hawley just calls it Shinto.

[SteveM]

I have my doubts

 

1. I can't find any variation of 住 that resembles the 4th kanji on this sword. 

http://glyphwiki.org/wiki/u4f4f-ue0100

 

2. 住 after 守 doesn't make any sense. 

 

Edit: 大動 (Daidō) is the most likely candidate so far, but the 4th kanji bothers me (what is it?, and does it help confirm Daidō), and the left part of 動 looks weird. But I have no better name to offer. There seem to be no examples of Daidō on the internet. If anybody has one, I'd be interested to have a look. Seems to be a slightly obscure smith. This is the long way of saying, I'm still scratching my head over this one. 

[ROKUJURO]

The TSUBA has obviously been "cleaned" and lost its patina and probably much of its value. Otherwise the KOSHIRAE looks nice and seems to be of good quality.

I am a little careful in buying when I see that the owner puts a blade in wrong position (on the cutting edge!) on the stand. Makes me feel dodgy.