SteveM

I think 如竹 (Nyochiku).

1941 (Imperial Calendar Year 2601) Kumagai Army Flight School 7th Graduation Medallion

http://www.jssus.org/nkp/index.html This page (several pages) is good as well. Dates are expressed in a couple of ways, but usually Era name + Year + Month/Day. If you are looking exclusively at Showa blades, you only need to look for 昭和 (Shōwa) and then you can be pretty sure the following kanji are numbers that indicate the year.

http://www.japaneseswordindex.com/seki.htm Real name is Ogawa Kaichi (I think) 小川嘉市

I have seen this slogan on yosegaki flags from the war. It doesn't strike me as being weird, although it is the first time for me to see it on a sword. I guess the smith is Yoshimi Yasutsugu from Hokkaidō (from Ohmura's site). http://ohmura-study.net/025.html (search for 泰次 on that page and his name pops up).

赤心報國 = This is a WW2 or pre-WW2 era patriotic slogan. Sincere devotion to country

I was going for accuracy. 1603 is three years after the beginning of the 17th century.

I was looking through a book yesterday and I thought I'd found it with 殷　(後藤殷乗 - Gotō Injō), but the existing samples look nothing like the one here.

There was no Shogun at the beginning of the 17th century. The Ashikaga line lingered until the late 1500s, and then ended leaving a vacuum. Tokugawa (Ieyasu) grabbed the title for himself in 1603. Maybe you are thinking of someone else? Anyway, the mei on the sword doesn't mention any patron or benefactor or recipient. It just says it was made by Nobu-somebody (I agree it looks like Nobuaki). 肥刕隈本住藤原宣明 Hishū Kumamoto-ju Fujiwara Nobuaki

Second one is 戸松兼玄作　Tomatsu Kaneharu saku

Ōtsuki school deer menuki. Not the level of some of the excellent pieces in the thread, but you go with what ya got.

The far left line of the back of the Togo picture looks like 千代子姉 (from your older sister Chiyoko). The photo is dated November 23rd, Showa 13 (1938). So it could well be from Manchuria.

昭和十九 = 1944

Looking at this again, the year could be 昭和卅九 = 1964

朧銀地 容彫 無銘水戸 昭和廿九？？ 寒山誌（花押） Oborogin-chi (type of metal) Katachibori (style) Mumei Mito (unsigned - Mito) Showa 29? ?? (1954?) ??　　Not 100% sure of the date, and I can't figure out the final two kanji in that line. Kanzan (Shirusu) Kaō Outside of the box 巳目貫 Snake menuki

Hello George, The article you linked to regarding the law on hairstyles is slightly misleading, and it is a common misconception that this law abolished the topknot. The law actually stated that people were henceforth free to grow their hair in any way they choose. There would have been no rush to studios to get one's picture taken. (If there was a rush, it was just because photography was booming everywhere in the world at that time). Note that merchants, etc.. could also carry knives, such as the tantō in this picture, for protection. They could also have topknots, just in slightly different styles from the samurai. So the presence of these things doesn't preclude the possibility that the subject is from a non-samurai family. I think Uwe's photo above is quite good for showing the likely color scheme. I'm guessing the haori part of the kimono is dyed in ai-zome (藍染) style - indigo, basically. The tantō can be anything from the very garish to the understated. My guess from looking at the clothes is that the tantō would/should be a subtle shade: brown or black, rather than the vermilion or other colors one sometimes sees.

I see no numbers, no Boston, no America. Alas, the writing is too cursive for me to pick out anything anything beyond that. The vertical line on the far right might be construed as 米国 (America), but as Jean above mentioned, America would most likely have been written using different kanji in the 1870s.

Hello Simon, Not ignoring this thread, but you've got the best answer so far from Dojikiri above 後藤囗乗　（花押） I don't know what the 3rd kanji might be. 政 comes to mind, but I don't think this is correct. So many Gotō artists. Maybe someone else can pick it out.

My guess is 四ツ木瓜形.

Hello David, The mei inscribed on this sword is 雲次　- Unji. You should be able to find this name in the swordsmith data base located in one of the links at the top of this page.

Wakayama's reference tells me his real last name was Yamamoto, that he worked in Nagasaki, and that he continued working until the Meiji era. He also signed as Munehide (宗英), and was a student of Tomohide (友英). Nice looking kozuka!

According to the paper, it says 明治三十四年夏清国出軍時 中西軍曹應好作之 Meiji 34, Summer, (on the occasion of) departure for military service in Shinkoku (Qing Dynasty China) Made for Sergeant Nakanishi

For the year and zodiac reading, you have it right: Shōwa Kanoe-tatsu (or Kōshin) refers to 1940.

I don't know about the overall asymmetry of the shape, but my first thought was that the theme was a fishing net, and that the weave was deliberately made to look irregular.

Yes - I too am starving for an explanation!