AMVasquez

Thanks for the tip. Not me in the picture, it's my father, and my mother was taking the photo, and I was at work. Had I been there I'd have had a stroke (I rebuild antique muzzleloaders for a hobby). I took a chance and pulled the weapon apart. Attached please find another view of the tsuba. The pictures of the blade are very blurry and not worth the bandwidth. I can say that the tang shows a sort of fine grained v-shaped pattern to the metal (I'd characterize it sort of like old metal files I've seen repurposed into mainsprings for muskets), the blade appears rather frighteningly sharp, and there is an irregular haze the length of the blade along the edge. The end of the blade comes to about a 45 degree angle about an inch from the tip. All help is, again, appreciated. AMV

I have attached two files showing the markings that appear on a Japanese sword I have inherited. The sword is what I believe is called a "wakizashi" and was a battlefield capture at Manila in 1945. I've shown these symbols to several supposed "experts" who have no idea what these symbols mean. The gentleman who obtained this sword stated that an interpreter at that time told him that the sword's blade was newer, but the handle and "tsuba" were -very- old. He thought it was some kind of heirloom. So, can anyone here identify these symbols? Any and all help is appreciated. Hopefully I have attached the images correctly, and have posted to the correct forum. If not, please accept my apologies.