SteveM

Nitpicking: Chūkō-kaisan Also see here; https://books.google.co.jp/books?id=qdb7T5IrXtcC&pg=PT119&lpg=PT119&dq=ch%C5%ABk%C5%8D-kaisan&source=bl&ots=03O-67kYxa&sig=n-T5jAVtbfMNA9T5qMQXIjlV6nc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjOpZyUl8zPAhVCHJQKHX8rC8MQ6AEIHzAA#v=onepage&q=ch%C5%ABk%C5%8D-kaisan&f=false

Just to clarify - it does indeed look like Gotō Denjō. 後藤伝乗 or 傳乗 using the traditional kanji. So in that sense the translation is accurate. As to authenticity of the thing, that is beyond me.

This is the "Kicho Ninteisho" paper. You can find out about it here on this site if you use the search function, or check out the link below http://www.nihontocraft.com/japanese_sword_papers.html This paper attributes the sword to Shintō Jyumyō.

Hello Ed 本籍山口県豊浦郡宇賀村 現在所天津特別市桃山街入 井上正雄 Address: Yamaguchi-ken, Toyoura-gun, Uga-mura Current Location: Tianjin City, Momoyama ? Inoue Masaō I have indicated in red those kanji for which the reading is unknown to me. The owner's personal name is Inoue Masa~, and the kanji is obscured by the fold in the tag, but I'm fairly certain it is 正雄 Masaō I've also left off the numbers of the address after Uga-mura. These should be fairly easy for you to pick out.

（藤）原兼永以耐錆鋼作之 (Fuji)wara Kanenaga taiseikō wo motte kore wo tsukuru Made with anti-rust steel by Fujiwara Kanenaga. The "Fuji" is not visible, but I suspect it is lurking under the tsuka. As usual, this is rendered in kanbun style. My transliteration may be slightly off - but it is close enough.

Ahh - funny, I was expecting a pictorial representation of Amaterasu... I didn't realize it was the actual words "Amaterasu Bodhissatva" arising from a lotus.

兼房　Kanefusa is another slight possibility. But I would lean towards Kanehiro. I'm not mega-confident in either of these. Now the sword has to tell you who made it. Tough for it to do when its out of polish. Edit: Looking at this on a better screen now... I doubt its Kanefusa. Still not confident about any of the possibilities so far.

Congratulations Brian. Great site, great effort, great resource, great contribution to the nihonto/tosogu world.

Michitaka from Chōshū is listed in Wakayama, so I'm liking the looks of that one. The Myōchin mei I feel confident that its intending to be Ki no Munetsugu, but there is no Munetsugu listed in Wakayama. I did find a few references to Myōchin Ōsumi no kami Ki no Munetsugu (same kanji) on the net, but they were mostly for auction sites. Wakayama says there were a lot of metalworkers of the Myōchin Ki branch who signed Mune~ (and then put their own kanji after the Mune). So I think if anyone has a comprehensive Myōchin lineage family try of the Ki branch, you might find Munetsugu listed there.

For the other, I would say 紀宗継 Ki no Munetsugu But I'm away from my books now, so I can't check on either of these. Will look later today.

長州住通高　Chōshū-jū Michitaka would be my guess. 　

I thought Hiro (廣), too.

For the carving: 表 omote (front) 蓮台上に天照皇大神宮 Tenshō Kōdaijingū (aka the mythologica goddess Amaterasu) arising from a lotus 裏 ura (back) 蓮上に八幡大菩薩に二筋樋 Two grooves, and Hachiman the boddhisatva arising from a lotus I'm very intrigued about the representation of Amaterasu... possible to get any pics of the carvings?

I don't understand what you are looking for. I already gave you the kanji. 榮 It was simplified after the war to 栄. Normally it is read as Ei, but there are a ton of alternate readings possible (including Hide). https://mnamae.jp/c/6804.html 英 is a completely different kanji, and it is different from the one written on the tag in your photo.

Was having second thoughts about that 榮 (Hide is an unusual reading), but I think its OK.

Looks like you've already got all we can give you. Your translation of the name tag looks right to me 陸軍少尉　　Rikugun Shōi 岡崎榮喜 Okazaki Hideki (could be other possible readings) Kanenobu also looks right, but I think the date is Shōwa 18 (1943). The shot you posted is too far away to tell much about the sword. You might find other WW2-era Kanenobu signatures on the web if you search around for them. Make sure to leave a first name and initial - forum rules.

No. The family crest is inherited from the previous generation. Typically it will get put on kimono, gravestones, buddhist alters in homes, and other places depending upon how much "bling" you like. There is no law saying you can't change your family crest, but it would be unusual, to say the least, that an officer would discard his family crest in favor of one belonging to someone he idolized. The fuji crest is common. As Malcom says, it originated with the Fujiwara, and this mon shows up now in a lot of families, both those claiming (hoping) to be direct descendants of the original Fujiwara, and those of branch families, as well as completely unrelated families. In any event, it hints at a noble past, and so any family would be proud to have this crest, I would think. Finally, a few crests are so common that manufacturers of items with family crests can carry stock of those items and always be assured there will be some customer for it. The fuji crest is one of them. Think of the souvenir key-chains you find at tourist sites...you can always be sure to find one that says "James" or "Robert" or "Steve". But if you have an unusual name you might have to special order it. It is the same with family crests. I don't know how the crests on these military swords were ordered, but I can imagine certain, common crests were mass-produced, while more unique crests had to be special-ordered. This is just pure speculation on my part, however.

Hello Ed You mean Katsumitsu, right? I'll get you started - the first full column (right side) is for the mei, and it reads 備前国長船二郎左衛門尉勝光 文亀二年二月吉日 Bizen no kuni, Osafune, Jirōsaemon-no-jyō Katsumitu Bunki 2 (1502), February, auspicious day The red square seal is the seal of the NTHK. I don't know if its inclusion or exclusion has any significance. Usually you would expect the kantei-sho to have this square seal on it, but I did a google search and found others without it.

Looks like 匠, but in reverse.

I am trying to answer the original poster's question as objectively as possible, and lead him away from the romantic or mystical aspects of nihontō. I don't deny these things exist (I'm repeating myself here), I just deny that there can be any objective consensus as to how the market should value "mystique". In the case of Yasukuni swords and such, I think you mistake rarity and quality for mystique. Rarity and quality are objective things, and the market attributes a value to these. I have yet to see a valid argument that kirikomi add monetary value. If one kirikomi is good, are two better? Are five even better? Should we expect swords with a lot of kirikomi to have consistently higher prices? Should the beginner be steered towards swords with kirikomi, because (presumably) these add value? Ultimately we like what we like, regardless of whether or not those reasons make sense to anybody but us. But the question is not: "Does anybody like kirikomi?", or "Are there swords with kirikomi that are highly valued?". These questions hardly require any input from us. Instead, the original question is one about the monetary value of kirikomi. Art is subjective, and so the question of why anything in the art world has value leads to divergent views. In this case I don't disagree with Darcy. He says kirikomi are a physical manifestation of the sword's history, and this is something that should be valued. I have no argument with this. I just don't think this is what the original poster was asking. I also don't think we can know whether a scratch in a sword was the result of a battle, or if it was the result of something else. I think we should be suspicious of cuts and scratches in swords. Our first reaction should be to discount the sword when we see these things. We shouldn't trust the sales pitch (or our internal bias) when it says, "these scratches are from a battle, and therefore the sword has a premium". Let me try to reduce the argument. Kirikomi add mystique, and therefore they are valuable. ← This is a valid statement. It has a valid counter-argument. I don't think this is what the original poster was asking though. Rarity is objective. Mystique is in the eye of the beholder. Rarity can add value. Mystique can also add value, but you are taking a step away from objectivity, and are more into the realm of faith and salesmanship. The NBTHK and the Japanese sword dealers may well be impressed with the rarity of a sword, but they will never be impressed with mystique. Mystique is not a part of the evaluation process for the NBTHK. I think the discussion is a good one, though. Hopefully it is interesting to people. It has made me think hard about some difficult questions. I hope Jason doesn't think I'm picking on him for asking this question that has led to such a long discussion. It was a good question. And I like thinking about the past owners of my swords and their histories, so I'm not totally oblivious to the romance and mystique. I just think its better to quarantine those thoughts as much as possible when thinking about monetary valuations.

Fuchi is 翠柳軒　　Suiryūken 友長老人 Tomonaga rōjin (kao) Seems to be a late Edo-period metalworker - aka Suisan-tomonaga. No other info. For the sword, a better picture of that last kanji on the tang might help determine what it is.

The relevant bit is: This piece is finely crafted with ridges around the seppa-dai and hitsu-ana, and while the theme is reminiscent of Mino, the lack of ridge around the rim, as well as the the carving of the design seem to have lead to an attribution of "Kyō-kinkō". However, Kenichi Okubo's "Minobori Metalwork" features some unconventional Minobori tsubas from the end of the Edo era which similarly have no ridges, therefore this piece can be said to fall into the category of late Edo Mino tsubas.

The one on the left reads 中惣, which is an abbreviation of 中屋惣兵衛, apparently a toolmaker based in Niigata in the Meiji period. The third photo (far right) is too small and dark for me to read.

The middle photo says 登録 俊弘丸 (Registered: Shunkōmaru) Not entirely sure on the reading of 俊弘丸 Shunkōmaru. It is the brand name of the Koyama Edged-Tool Works Co., Ltd. of Miki-shi, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. http://www.mokuba-tools.co.jp/goods/nomi/04.html

Here is one of the bits describing Japanese titles. I think there may be another one floating around. http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/19758-no-no/?hl=title Also, check out the great reading list under the "articles" section of this board. One more thing: if/when you get the plain wooden scabbard made, and even if you decide to get Edo-period furnishings made, you can still (obviously) keep the world war two mounts as keepsakes. When I said they were a write-off, I didn't mean to imply they should be thrown away. But once the sword is clean and free of cosmoline, you wouldn't want to keep it any longer in its WW2 mounts, because the inside of those mounts could be coated with grime.