SteveM

Maybe 吉春　Yoshiharu (or possibly 喜春, same reading)

That was Thomas's handiwork, but I'm sure the thanks is appreciated just the same.

Yes - that is my guess as well. Steve

1st one is 面白元作之珍重　　 Interesting and original (design) 2nd one is 出来宜敷囗 deki yoroshiku I'm actually a bit stumped by the final character of the second line. I have a few Kanzan hakogaki with this same construction, and I have kind of lazily skipped over it, thinking it was part of 宜敷, or maybe it was 宜敷く, or some variation of く (perhaps hentaigana). But looking at this fresh I don't like any of those options, and am wondering what it is exactly. Edit: Looking again, I guess the last character is 候 (in kuzushiji)

南蛮龍象嵌透 布目

You can do this if you have an address in Japan, or are using an agent to import (so that the agent can put down his address). But if you are a tourist I don't think you can get the temporary permission slip.

If you are near Southern California, I would recommend taking it to Mike Yamasaki, who can give you good advice on the blade and the polishing process. What I can tell you today is that the blade comes with an appraisal paper (origami) from Hon'ami Kō'on, dated 1662. Kō'on says the blade comes from the Sa lineage (he doesn't specify the exact smith). The blade was already shortened and had lost its signature by this time. Then, in 1953 (maybe January, can't quite tell), Japanese sword scholar Kashima Tsutomu reaffirmed the sword was of the Sa lineage via his own appraisal. Then, in June of that same year, the NBTHK also appraised the sword as coming from the Sa lineage, and gave it a "Precious" designation (one of the designations that predates the Tokubetsu Hozon designation). The current "Sa Hiroyuki" appraisal comes from the latest NBTHK appraisal, dated 2021, in which it received the Tokubetsu Hozon designation. So, no doubt the sword is of the Sa school, but there may not be absolute consensus among the Japanese sword world as to the Hiroyuki appraisal. This may be one reason the sword currently does not have a Jūyō designation. My gut feeling is that if the sword were a super strong candidate for Jūyō, the sword dealer Seiyūdō would have submitted it themselves in order to take advantage of the potential profit that they could have received by selling it as a Jūyō blade. But I am not an expert, and that "gut feeling" is sort of a lazy person's conclusion.

I don't think this is Nobu (信). The two angled strokes at the top of the character inscribed on this nakago are sort of floating in isolation to the rest of the strokes. The left angled stroke needs to have a vertical stroke centered directly underneath it. The right angled stroke needs to be more or less centered above the other horizontal strokes. And there would be a very boxy-looking set of strokes at the bottom of the character. None of these are present, so even giving a lot of latitude for artistic flourish, this character could not be 信. I don't think its 兼 (Kane) either, for similar reasons. Unfortunately, I can't offer a plausible candidate for what it might be. It doesn't look like anything other than some random strokes. I mean it kind of looks similar to 金 or 全 or even 年, rather than 信 or 兼, but none of those options look right either. So I'm at a bit of a loss. Random strokes by someone? An abandoned attempt at forgery?

Theme is Shoki fighting a demon. Mei is 山城國　吉久　Yamashiro-no-kuni, Yoshihisa

チヤ (Chiya) Chiya is the name of a city that had a tatara furnace in it, and it is where he produced some swords.

Yeah...me too. And つつじ. I really wonder if average people in the Edo period intuitively knew how to read hentaigana, or if they just picked it up from the context, or if they just waited until some educated person came along and told them how to read (for example) a caption like this? The text in the red box I could pick out half of the characters, but the other half came with the help of the internet.

From the series 風流花鳥尽 (Compilation of Tasteful Flowers and Birds) by Hiroshige 2nd. 雉子つづじ　Pheasants and Azaleas きくうづら　Chrysanthemums and Quail 藤の花つばめ　Wisteria and swallows Some of these are in hentaigana, so they look different to what I've written above

I presume any modern engraving machine/device can do this. The IJA may well have made use of such a device, but certainly Iga-no-kami Kinmichi did not.

Yes, it says 三池典太　Miike Tenta, a name of a near-legendary swordsmith from the Heian era. Best to consider this one an "homage". The mei adds nothing to the sword, and most people will find it suspicious and therefore an unfortunate addition to the sword.

Yes, written in a kind of off-the shelf "Times New Roman" kind of font. I believe this is machine-inscribed. Maybe some kind of souvenir sword.