Shugyosha

Hi Mark, 以地金下 Motte jigane shita… Made with “jigane” which Jisho defines as unprocessed ore or an ingot. Then the kanji “shita” meaning below or beneath which I guess may be part of the smith’s name and which probably has other readings. Hope that helps some.

Yes, it's the "Seki" stamp. https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/7476-use-of-the-seki-stamp-and/

It doesn't look like it goes through the hamon so I'd say that it's not fatal (assuming that what I can see from the photos is actually the case). It's not very pretty but I don't think it's killed the blade. I'm working on the premise that something is either fatal or not, rather than there being degrees of fatal.

Perhaps to bring the balance point closer to the tsuka? I can remember one sword l that was quite long, that unfortunately I can’t reference, where there were metal strips in the grip presumably for that purpose. Or maybe because an outsize blade needs something to absorb the unusual shock of a strike? Just guessing.

Looks like it has the ho (ホ) armoury?? stamp on the nakago mune too, the meaning of this is beyond my knowledge but the gunto guys will be able to provide that information.

My oeil was tromped too.

I don't actually know the answer but a lance penetrating a body deeply can drag the lance from the cavalryman's hand and even the rider from the horse if he hangs onto it and his techique is off for any reason. Perhaps it was thought that limiting the potential to penetrate might mitigate against this problem?

Good spot Sam, For the record, I think it's this : 備州長船佑国 ...but the 佑 kanji which can also read "suke" doesn't come up in Sesko's compendium or an on line search for Bizen smiths. Luckily Sam replied otherwise I would have assumed it was me and kept on searching.

Hi Geraint, Sorry for the short post yesterday. 備前国長船住横山祐春 - Bizen kuni Osafune ju Yokoyama Sukeharu - [Made by] Yokoyama Sukeharu resident of Osafune [in] Bizen province. 嘉永三年八月吉日- Kaei san'en hachi gatsu kichi jitsu - Kaei [era name], third year, eighth month, lucky day. There's another example of his signature and his work here: https://www.sanmei.com/contents/media/H7608_S5017_PUP_E.htm

Google was wrong, whoever you asked was correct: shin shinto Bizen, Osafune Sukeharu, a lucky day in August in the third year of Kaei 1850 in the western calendar. Sorry, on my phone so reproducing the kanji is a problem.

Someone with the electronic version of Sesko's meikan could do a search on the nori character and that would perhaps give a list of smiths whose name contains that character? The same could apply to the Nihontoclub database if anyone still has access. In Sesko's compendium the only entry is for the character itself so we can presume that he wasn't one of the titled smiths or one rated wazamono etc.

Well I think I can make out ju 住 and nori (or ki): 記. I can't see a place name and I'm nor sure if there is a character before nori but I think there is one after which looks like it has the saucepan lid radical at the top...does that win me the hand of the fair princess?

You could have a chat with Paul Martin who used to be well connected in terms of linking westerners with providers of restoration services for swords and fittings in Japan. Looking at his website, he may have moved on from that but it might not hurt to drop him a line. I've used him for shinsa services in the past and have been very happy with the services recieved. https://thejapanesesword.com/

A Sharpie?

Hi Jean, might be Kunitomo: 国友

Another example of the signature here: http://www.nihonto.us/LS017 FURUGAWA GENCHIN.htm

Hi Andy, One more thing to check, the name "Matsukichi" can also be read "Matsuyoshi" from the same kanji so your guy might come up under the alternative reading.

I don't know but there's a number of people who might, among them: @PNSSHOGUN @robinalexander @Bruce Pennington Hopefully you'll get some help there.

Hi Andy, I think the translation that you have for the tag is accurate: 広島県 – Hiroshima Ken - Hiroshima Prefecture 佐伯郡 - Saeki Gun - Saeki district 官島町 – Miyajima Machi - Miyajima town 一四六 – 146 海軍大佐 – Kaigun Daisa (Navy Colonel) 松井島吉 – Matsui Shimakichi (Given name) I don't know anything about Japanese Navy ranks, however, when I put "Daisa" into the online dictionary that I use, the definition comes back as "colonel; (navy) captain" so it might just be a semantic thing. https://jisho.org/search/daisa That said, how convinced are you that the surrender tag is genuine? It looks practically pristine and the ink is so black it could have been written yesterday...

It may seem like cold comfort, but it looks like what you have is quite a nice Shinto katana. The seller hasn’t oversold this as (sorry) the Bungo smiths are mostly not that sexy, so it may be gimei or just an unrecorded smith (or one outside a mainline textbook)… Hopefully you didn’t speculate on the signature and can just enjoy it for what it is and can learn from and enjoy your new sword.

The old double bluff heh?

Hi Karu, It looks like you may need to become a member: https://nihontoclub.com

Hi Sky, Had you thought about going to the man himself? https://www.hizento.com/book-tadayoshi-history.php

Hi John, I'm sorry I can't help there, however, but it has been the received wisdom since I've been interested in the subject. The vast majority seem to not be high quality items and confirm that rule whereas the one you've shown is clearly the exception - it has a hamon, and is well finished on the side with the signature and the mei is well carved and is clearly something that the smith was rightly proud to sign. In my post I was careful to qualify what I said by use of words like "generally" and "probably" because, as with most things nihonto and I've made the error more than once before, the instant something is stated as an immutable rule, something appears that proves the opposite and there are undoubtedly good kogatana out there.

As Piers says, the signatures on kogatana (the blade part as opposed to the handle which is a kozuka) are generally aspirational and more often than not the name of a famous swordsmith that bears no relationship to the actual maker or the maker of the main blade to which the fittings belong. That the kogatana is signed, and that the signature is probably false, doesn't add to or detract from the value of the piece or the package as a whole and, unfortunately, in this case isn't very clear and it's very much a peripheral issue relative to the interesting wakizashi in quite a nicely made scabbard that you have.