Now I may be pushing the friendship here, but

Hi all,

As said above, I may be pushing the friendship here but after the great response regarding information on Kanenori which has given me so much to work with, I'm hopeful that I may extract some info regarding my second Gunto by Fujiwara Kaneshige.

The information that i have to date suggests that the smith worked through the 1930s and 40s in Seki, and while i don't think the sword is anything out of the ordinary, I'm a bit confused by the hot stamp, and the Arsenal stamp above the text although i think i may be correct in suggesting that the Arsenal stamp simply means that the sword at some stage came through that particular Arsenal and that the sword was not necessarily made there.

Any information or comments would be greatly received

Regards Chris O

This is a WWII era iai-to. These were made in rather large numbers in Seki.

The stamp above the signature is call a Sho stamp as it is a cherry blossom with the character sho from the period, sho-wa, inside. It is found on non-traditionally made blades. The stamp at the bottom of the blade, if I remember correctly, references a patent number for the non-traditional method invented to make these showa-to.

Thanks Chris, once again your post gives me something to work on.

Regards

Chris o