dkirkpatrick

Mike, Just my .02 cents, I looked in Fujishiro's and the Koza and did'nt think the mei looked quite right. In the Koza particularly there is an exact example of this mei on a naginata on pg. 53. There is also an example of Yukihide under the section at the end of this book discussing gimei as well as shoshin mei oshigata within the text of the book. Hope this helps.

Just thought I might put my two cents in. I think that this is a kindai gimei, as explained in vol. 5 of the Koza, of Masayuki who of course later went on to become Kiyomaro. I think gimei because it seems to incorporate enough of the spacing and kanji characteristics that I don't think are conicidence. I say kindai or around the 1930's because of these gimei I have seen they seem to almost deliberately make enough "mistakes" if you will that they strike me as the effort of someone who is trying to deceive, but guilt (or maybe lack of skill) is keeping them from taking the ruse too far. I have a gimei Hizen Tadayoshi very similar to this in that it shares the same kind of "christmas bulb" tagane mannerism on the ends and has the same weird rust; too much and too dark for Showa but not really mellow enough for even Meiji. That said, it's a nice looking gendaito and I suspect in polish this one would be the same. I know this seems a sacrilege but I use 1500 grit sandpaper followed by oil/uchiko on deeply pitted blades like this because your scratches are so far above what will have to be removed that as long as you work carefully and stay off the shinogi line I doubt you could do much damage. This will give you as previously stated a good idea if you really want to throw in for polish as well a humbling lesson as to why good polishers are worth every penny of their asking price. Sorry for the newbie rant and before anyone jumps me too bad I want to emphasize that I only use the sandpaper on intermediate blades with deep polishing needs.