SteveM

This same sword appeared on the forum some months ago;

Honestly, considering the clumsy writing of 藤原, I thought the third kanji was a poor attempt at 兼. The last one could well be a partial 是, or a partial 恒.

Happy New Year Everyone, The next meeting of the Southern California Japanese Sword Club (Nanka Token Kai) will be on the 9th of January, from 7:00pm to 9:00pm at the usual venue. Club Sensei Mike Yamasaki will be unable to attend, so there will be no formal agenda, but feel free to drop by. If you have any documents/items and you would like to know what they say, bring them and I will take a look. Steve Meeting Details: Location: Gardena Valley JCI, 1964 W. 162nd Street, Gardena, CA 90247 Day/Date: Friday/January 9, 2026 Time: 7:00-9:00 PM

I'd like to know, too. If anyone has any info, do post it here if possible.

小島吉道 Kojima Yoshimichi

Hello Jon, Yes, the Southern California Japanese Sword Club (Nanka Token Kai) holds a meeting on the 2nd Friday of every month. We just had our December meeting a couple of weeks ago. You are welcome to bring any swords to the meeting and get an opinion on valuation. The next meeting should be on January 9th, but this is not fixed yet as I haven't confirmed availability of our club teacher/sensei. We meet at the Gardena Valley Japanese Cultural Institute (link below). Feel free to come by if you are so inclined. https://share.google/5cSJ3YytU03Cqh8D9 In general I would say the market price for WW2 blades is between $1k and $2k, depending on the condition. Items that are in particularly good condition will reach the top end of that range or higher. Swords that are unique or have signatures of well-regarded smiths may fetch higher prices. In the event your sword is an antique blade that predates WW2 - as in, it was a family heirloom that got mounted in WW2 era scabbard/fittings, the value could be higher. Condition is everything. If you want a quick sanity check you can post pictures of the blade here on the forum and we can take a look. If you don't want the whole world to see, feel free to DM me pictures of the blade and I'll give you my best guess.

I thought it was just a number signifying the contents (one tsuba). Kind of like how NBTHK puts a "一." (hitotsu) in front of the items listed on their authentication certificates. Something of an old-fashioned formality. I'd feel more confident in this if I'd seen him do this on other boxes, but, as I said its the first time to come across this notation. 老... feels a bit off, but already I have some bias affecting my judgment, so I remain open to the possibility.

I was up to 古囗存矣, and I too was thinking "old/antique taste", but I couldn't nail that second one with any certainty. 古香存矣　Kōkō ari? Unsure of pronunciation. And my guess is that the last kanji of the first line of this box (HGK05) is 壱 (one). But I've never seen a Kanzan hakogaki that had this sort of notation on it. Anyway, it looks very much like a kuzushi form of 壱.

Yes, its a cutting test, but that second character is odd, so it's kind of unintelligible. 脇囗落平地 It would mean a chest-cut (horizontal, under the arm pits), with the sword cutting through the body and into the earth on which the body rested. But the word for chest-cut should be 脇毛, and the inscriber here has written 脇丁, or maybe 脇ケ, which feels a bit unusual.

細野惣左衛門政守 Hosono Sozaemon Masamori

It's a promotional photo for a Japanese drama. Not a period photograph. "The Kamikaze Pilot's Wife" (or, literally, The Wife Who Flew With Her Kamikaze Husband) https://mdpr.jp/news/detail/1495017

寿孝作　Toshitaka-saku (Made by Toshitaka)

OK, these don't help much because they are bit out of focus, and the machi area of the blade (not the spine) is what I wanted to see (see the red circle in the photo below). All I can say is that it is possible this sword could have been shortened down. But then you have an anomaly because I don't think any of the Kanabō smiths made any tachi. They are from an era when the tachi production was dwindling. And, I don't know if any of them signed with just the two-character Kanabō name. Also, I haven't looked at any of my references to see if there were any smiths besides the Kanabō group who used these two characters as a name (Kanefusa). So, not a lot of concrete info for you.

Can't say anything without seeing the whole sword/sugata. It does look like those bright marks on the tang were caused by a vise or something.

Not "kin", but "kane" (same kanji, different pronunciation) 金房　Kanefusa / Kanabō Other side is a something and the number 6 (六) Looks like 一刀六, but needs a bit of digging around to find out what it is/means. Literally its one, sword, six, but the meaning is unclear.

Hello, yes this is an arsenal blade made during WW2. The inscription is 関武山義尚作 Seki Takeyama Yoshinao saku which means "Takeyama Yoshinao of Seki (city) made this".

予士 would have to be Yoshi, which is the abbreviated form of 予科士官 (Yoka Shikan). I think the guys over there just made a careless mistake. They are very adept translators/researchers.

予士６３　Something like "Cadet 63".

There are some details about care/maintenance at the link below https://www.nihontomessageboard.com/faq.html Generally, you don't want to use any solvents or cleansers. I'd avoid steam, just because I'm not sure if it will have some kind of discoloration effect on the sword. I think most people would suggest just using alcohol to wipe it down and remove any cosmoline or other junk that might be on it. Then give it a super light coating of oil (lightweight machine oil - sewing machine, electric shaver, that kind of thing). This is to protect it from oxidization/rust. The collecting community isn't as twitchy about WW2 blades as they would be for an 800-year old samurai sword, but the underlying principle is the same - preservation above all. No abrasives, no solvents or cleansers*. *I think there are one or two specialty cleansers that people have mentioned as being OK to use on these kinds of swords, and you can probably find their names if you search this site enough. Maybe a member who knows will chime in. But really, just use alcohol for now, and see if you can't get any of the garbage-juice off.

関福田兼丈作　Seki Fukuda Kanetake-saku (Made by Fukuda Kanetake, of Seki city) Kanetake is the name of the smith. Fukuda is the family name.

Just a quick update; there will be no meeting for the Southern California Sword Club this month. Stay tuned for news regarding the December meeting.

Mei is 包矩 (Kanenori). Presumably Shōami Kanenori. Other examples https://www.touken-world.jp/search-sword-guard/art0002612/ https://www.yamasiroya.com/tsuba/post_21.html　　(same tsuba as above, I think) https://www.aoijapan.jp/鍔正阿弥　包矩/

Here's a snip from that site (Robert Benson's site, by the way). If I'm not mistaken, this information is a few years old, and this page was made when Woody was still working under Bob Benson's guidance. Woody since branched out on his own and was working in the Las Vegas area, but he's now back in Hawaii. I don't know the exact details, but I believe he is helping Bob out (now as a peer, instead of an apprentice, but "peer" may be a word that Woody might not agree with). Anyway, I do not know either men personally, so my info comes 2nd and 3rd hand. Woody is well-known in the States, so I'm slightly surprised Axel has never heard of him, but no doubt he will be seeing Woody's name pop up more often now.

Also see "Woodrow Hall". https://togishi.com/about-us.html

Gotō Kanehira 後藤包平