my Dad's souvenier from WW2

[skid56]

Hello, I am Mark and I would like to find out when & where my Dad's samurai sword was made. Dad was in the US army and fought in the Philippines. He served from 1943 to 1946. He was stationed near Nagoya as part of the occupation forces after the war. When he was about to be sent home in December 1945, he acquired this sword at Kagamigahara air base, Japan.  I was told the tang had been shortened and the remaining kanji was "Kane". I am hoping someone will be able to date the sword &  in which school the sword was made. I've sent a few pictures with hope of gaining some knowledge about it. Dad gave it to me a few years back before passing in 2016 at 92 years of age. The kanji is old, I guess because a friend who hosted a Japanese exchange student asked the student to translate the kanji but was unable to do so because it was an older character no longer used I was told. I've attached a few pictures in hopes someone will have the knowledge I lack.. Thank you very much

Samurai 2.bmp

Samurai 5.bmp

Samurai 4.bmp

Samurai 1.bmp

Samurai 3.bmp

[John A Stuart]

Hi Mark, I moved your gunto to the appropriate section. John

[ROKUJURO]

Hi Mark,

welcome to the forum!

Your sword seems indeed to have a blade from the SAMURAI era, probably later SHINTO period. The smith signed with his name KANE.... but the second KANJI was cut off when the NAKAGO was slightly shortened to adapt to another TSUKA (handle). There were many generations of smiths with that name. The HAMON is SANBONSUGI which means 'three cedars'.

All these features point to a manufacture in SEKI province. Of course this is only my opinion based on photos. To make a safer assessment one has to have the blade in hand.

 

[PNSSHOGUN]

Hi Mark, your father had a good eye when he got this souvenir. The mounts are in excellent condition and appear to be of high quality, however we will need more photos of the mounts & blade including full shots and closeups. You can also directly upload photos if you hit the "more reply options" button and there is an uploader at the bottom of the text box.

[Stephen]

id be comparing the Kane  to shoshin Kanemoto  mei. how long is the blade from tip to habaki? looks long in photos, add the removed nakago could put this well into koto blades

[skid56]

Thank you for the information. The last time I removed the handle was in 2003. I'll try to get it apart for more pictures soon. Please pardon my ignorance, I'm completely unschooled about these... but learning. Are there any particular pictures I could take of it to help gain more information? Again, thank you very much for sharing your knowledge, I do appreciate it.

[Stephen]

skid?

 

please go to your profile and add your name to signatures.

 

so many Kane's out there fewer who used only two kanji (niji mei). pix we need other side of nakago. area under habaki to see if the hamon runs all the way down.

any file marks on nakago. if its long it also might be Shinshinto. so measurement requested . clean all powder out of mei.

 

whats going to help you is the little hook above the main box of the Kane, im sure a shinsa team could tell right away; im going to attach a photo from Malcom Cox's book Mino-to.

 

each smith signed his own flare to the chisel marks.

[David Flynn]

Looks Kanbun shinto, to me.

[skid56]

here are a few more photos.

[skid56]

and a few more

[Ray Singer]

Mark, you have received good feedback above as far as this being a Mino blade. My guess is Sue-koto, late Muromachi (though the base of the togari-gonome is fairly wide).

[Stephen]

Around 26" now...can you imagine ub???

Really nice history!

[Peter Bleed]

My bet would be late koto, early 1500s or just a bit older. The standard quip whenever you see sanbonsugi hamon is, "Ahh, yes, this is by Kane somebody,"

P