WWII Shin-Gunto Sword MEI Identification

[cbecket]

Greetings, I am new to the forum.  I picked up what I believe to be a genuine WWII Shin-Gunto sword and I started to research the tang markings and wanted to ask what some of them mean.  I believe I dated it correctly as a Showa period made in 1943 with no month markings. It has a Seki stamp.  The signature on the back "Mei" puzzled me.  I believe it says it was made by a person or in a province named "Taira" by a "Kami" Lord Grade Swordsmith.  I would appreciate and be very much interested to hear what you all can tell me about it.  It has a green scabbard.  I would have posted more pictures, but it would have been over limit on upload size.  Thank you for your help. 

 

Best Regards! 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ganko]

The signature is "Tadayuki"

[cbecket]

I am new to this, so Tadayuki is the Swordsmith? Is that denoted by the top character? Is the bottom Charachter Kami, and does that mean that Tadayuki was a high level or "Lord" Swordsmith? Did you agree with my opinion of the manufacture date? Also if the name Tadayuki is the swordsmith, was this sword based upon the sword being made by machine and then finished by hand, how did that work? I find this fascinating!

[Furin Kazan]

I'm new to this but can read kanji. First picture just says the year. "Showa 18th Year". There is no "Taira" or "Kami" present. Taira is an ancient Surename from a famous samurai family (Heike). "... no Kami" were usually court positions preceded by name of a province.  

 

Mike

[cbecket]

On the side of the tang that contains the signature of the Swordsmith, there are two possibly 3 characters, what do those characters literally translate to, is it just say Tadayuki? And if so, is there any information on him that I can seek out. Was he known, and did he just finish the sword after it was made by machine?

[cbecket]

I appreciate the time and the sharing of your knowledge!

[cbecket]

I saw a list on the website that has the names of Showa period Tadayuki Swordsmiths Bungo Tadayuki (Tad325) and Mino Tadayuki (Tad330). Is there any way to tell the difference as it looks like the kanji characters for both appear to be the same.

 

I later saw that I was mistaken, the names Mino and Bungo were actually the names of Provinces. Is there a way to know which Tadayuki from which Province was involved?

[Furin Kazan]

On the side of the tang that contains the signature of the Swordsmith, there are two possibly 3 characters, what do those characters literally translate to, is it just say Tadayuki? And if so, is there any information on him that I can seek out. Was he known, and did he just finish the sword after it was made by machine?

 

There are only 2 characters 忠-Tada and 行-Yuki . And I'll leave the rest for the experts

[Furin Kazan]

I saw a list on the website that has the names of Showa period Tadayuki Swordsmiths Bungo Tadayuki (Tad325) and Mino Tadayuki (Tad330). Is there any way to tell the difference as it looks like the kanji characters for both appear to be the same.

 

Did a little research as I also find this interesting. There is a Showa Seki swordsmith (Seki Kaji Tosho) using the name 忠行 (Tadayuki) and his real name appears to be 河村 一三 (Kawamura Ichizo, out of Gifu) The following information is taken directly from japaneseswordindex.com "During WWII, more than 200 swordsmiths worked only at Seki province to supply qualified swords for their soldiers.  Their names began to appear in Seki Tanrensho Booklet printed in 1939.  Several smiths in this list worked as Rikugun Jumei Tosho (e.g. Nakata Kanehide) and produced both good and poor blades together. However, most of these seki smiths produced low grade Showato and should not be regarded as a Gendaito." 

 

Dos that match what you found as well?

[Brian]

Charles,
The key is that little stamp you see there. It is called a Seki arsenal stamp. Once you see this, you know the sword is wartime, and not 100% traditionally made. So made by a smith for the war, but using faster production methods.
Then once you know the name of the smith, you can look at the wartime smiths and find out which one made your sword. In your case, looks like Mike got it.

[cbecket]

Mike and Brian, thank you both for the information. Mike, I didnt get that far as I am learning to navigate the different links and lists. I learn rather quickly as yesterday I did not know anything about kanji or how to read it, I was able to fairly accurately determine the period and year of manufacture, but I am still learning and have much to absorb. I totally misread and missed the mark on the signature side. The names and how they use and go by different names is where I get confused. Thanks again.

[cisco-san]

Did a little research as I also find this interesting. There is a Showa Seki swordsmith (Seki Kaji Tosho) using the name 忠行 (Tadayuki) and his real name appears to be 河村 一三 (Kawamura Ichizo, out of Gifu) The following information is taken directly from japaneseswordindex.com "During WWII, more than 200 swordsmiths worked only at Seki province to supply qualified swords for their soldiers.  Their names began to appear in Seki Tanrensho Booklet printed in 1939.  Several smiths in this list worked as Rikugun Jumei Tosho (e.g. Nakata Kanehide) and produced both good and poor blades together. However, most of these seki smiths produced low grade Showato and should not be regarded as a Gendaito." 

 

Dos that match what you found as well?

 

Hello,

 

Mike you are right, I think this you your guy (from Markus Seskos´s book):

TADAYUKI (忠行), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Gifu – “Tadayuki” (忠行), real name Kawamura Ichizō (河村一三), born February 1st 1924, he worked as guntō smith

[Bruce Pennington]

The date "Showa 18th Year", translates to 1943.

 

Brian touched on the "machine made" term, but to give a little more detail, all blades made during WWII were made by people. There was quite a shortage of blades throughout the war and to ramp up production (over 2 million were made by war's end) they started using hydraulic hammers and other machines to aid in the manufacture. The term is mostly used to describe "non-traditionally made" blades, which could have meant various things. I'm attaching a list of the 9 ways blades were made during the war. Any variation from the traditional way would have required a stamp on the blade. I'll also attach the lastest "Stamps Document" which goes into depth on the history of the many stamps used during the war.

Stamp 5.1.pdf

[cbecket]

Awesome, great information here, thank you!!

[DoTanuki yokai]

looks like he was also one of 209 registered swordsmiths in Seki in 1944.