permlc

Mr. Bowen – Thanks for replying and presenting a few possible theories of what’s going on with the sword. That’s more information than I previously received on a forum. I met with Jimmy Hayashi for a few hours last Thursday. He spent about one hour examining the sword and another hour teaching me how to handle it, oil it, and other general information. His initial thought was the sword was 15th or 16th century, I believe because of the curvature (sori?), but he did not rule out an older sword. He said it was a good sword made by a skilled smith. My notes indicate that he said the temper line was active and the hamon showed “consistent” brightness through the length of the sword. We came up with a plan: Step 1 – initial examination, Step 2 – shinsa documentation, Step 3 – polish if the shinsa results are good. He said he was not an expert at determining smiths by their signature. One of the possibilities was Horikawa Kuniyasu and I noticed a thread on this forum concerning his signature. The forum members were able to produce actual signatures of the smith, which I thought was great, and perhaps they could identify the signature on my sword. I would still love to get a translation of the inscriptions. Thanks again, Mike P

I began learning about swords two months ago, so please forgive any vague questions or incorrect terminology. I already posted on a different forum, but did not receive a lot of feedback due to my ignorance. I’ve been told the signature is Kuniyasu, but which Kuniyasa? I believe there are over 40 smiths with this name. I am very interested in the inscriptions on the mei. I know the last part says something like “eternal good luck in war”. Can anyone help with the ID of the sword smith and the inscriptions? Please let me know if I posted this in the correct sub-forum. Thank you, Mike P Mei.pdf