SteveM

Yes - I too am starving for an explanation!

妙来 (myōrai) or 希妙来 (kimyōrai) I think would be something different from 如来 (Nyōrai). Very possibly related to Dainichi Nyorai (大日如来), but I feel that there must be some specific reason for the use of 妙 that I am not clever enough to sort out. 心外無別法 > I don't think this is a negation of the outside world. Rather, it is negation of the distinction between the outside and the inside. So the maxim 心外無別法 means not that there is nothing outside of your heart. It means: what you think of as two separate things (the outside world and the inner world), are actually both one and the same. Hence, whatever you experience on the outside, is reflected in your heart/mind/soul, and whatever you feel in your heart takes on a manifestation in the outside world as well. When the soul is not well, the outside world is not well (and vice-versa). So that is why I was looking for some contradiction inherent in the kanji 希・妙 but coming up with nothing, My two cents.

Hello Gordon, I think you mean Buddhist priest, no? And, is Markus OK with you posting his comments above? If so, I would make a couple of comments, but I don't want to do it if he didn't intend to his comments to be speculated on by the crowd here.

Hello Bryan, sorry to say I don't know anything about this smith. He seems to be a rather obscure WW2-era smith.

Hello Kevin, The photo tells me the blade has had a hard life. It has lost the yokote and is in terrible need of a polish. (But you probably already knew this). It's impossible for me to see if it has or had a hamon, but it seems if it had one, that too has disappeared through use. The translation for the inside of the lid of the scabbard is located in the thread that Shamsy linked to. The mark on the tsuka is a family crest with the slightly cumbersome name of Maru ni sumitatsu yotsu-me, loosely (and rather obviously) translated as "four squares in a circle". Family crests on the these metal bits of WW2 swords are not uncommon (but may indicate the owner went through some expense to have this part personalized, or perhaps it was personalized on his behalf). https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%9B%AE%E7%B5%90%E7%B4%8B

Hello Bryan, The mei reads: Naganuma Yoshifusa Another possible reading might be Yoriifusa, as in the thread below. (with thanks to Moriyama-san and Eugene) http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/859-kanji-help/

Agree with all of the above. I think the scabbard with the flap is/was called an Iida scabbard. If original, it could be interesting for collectors. Search for Iida scabbard (or Ida, maybe) on this site and you should get a few more hits. Also more information at the site below http://ohmura-study.net/734.html Close-up pictures of the sword, especially the blade area and the tip, might reveal a bit more about whether it is a mass-produced army sword (guntō), or something older.

While the individual kanji are all relatively common, the phrases themselves do not occur in modern Japanese. I doubt they occurred normally in pre-modern Japanese as well. Putting them into a search engines turns up a whole lot of nothing (or predictable near misses).　 無別法 appears as part of the Buddhist phrase 心外無別法, which means all of the outside world is a manifestation of what lies in the heart/soul/mind. To break it into its components a little bit and reverse-engineer it: there is no distinction (無別) between the inner world (心) and the outer world (外). So from that we can surmise that the 無別法 on your sword also refers to this Buddhist concept of unity and continuity (non-distinction). 希妙来 is a bit more difficult to dissect. 希 = hope, beseech. Also can mean rare, scarce 妙 = strange, odd 来 = come, arrive I think trying to concoct a meaning by stringing any of those options together would produce gibberish, especially when combined with 無別法. If the kanji represented contradictory ideas (say, rigidity and flexibility), it would be easy to guess that the phrase was expressing some realization of the fusion of opposites to form one whole. But I don't sense any basic contradiction. Rather, I think 希 and 妙 have some meaning in esoteric Buddhism that I am not aware of. 妙 probably relates to a concept found in The Lotus Sutra (南無妙法蓮華経) Nammyōhōrengekyo. Depending on your reference, 妙 in this context can mean correct, life, good, beauty, or any of another million things. Perhaps its an idea of making no distinction between this life and the afterlife. Or it could be an expression of living as though you had already attained Buddhahood (satori).

Yep, that's the one that Moriyama-san picked out. 齊清　(齊 is a variation of 齋, 斎, and 斉). (I tossed it from the list of candidates because it didn't appear in my reference ). Meikan more? Edit: I should add that I don't have a clue as to how you would pronounce this. Moriyama-san suggests Narikiyo. 齊 almost invariably appears as part of the name 齋藤 (Saitō) and hardly ever appears anywhere else, at least in everyday conversation.

Hello Again, The FAQ section of this site has a pretty nice selection of books to consider.

Yes - with few exceptions, the mon (and the owner of the sword, really) are irrelevant. Even if the mon were from a prestigious family - say, the Tokugawa - it would still add little to the sword, I'm afraid. It would be an interesting curiosity, but that's about it. If it were a celebrated sword that had meticulous documentation and ended up being used by some distant Tokugawa ancestor in WW2, then it might have value as an historical artifact in addition to the value of the sword (maybe), but in the sword world the comment you often hear is: "buy the sword, not the story". Even non-samurai families (merchants, for example) could have kamon. Just to repeat, think of the furnishings as a frame. A nice frame will make a nice ensemble, but unless the frame itself was made by DaVinci, consider it replaceable.

Gave it the college try, but came up empty-handed. I was thinking along the lines of 家月清, or 斎清, but those were dead-ends. Possible to get another shot of the kanji(s) above 清?

There are quite a few Hiroshige swordsmiths. I don't know which one yours is. (I had trouble loading some of the photos. Maybe they are very high res and my computer is gagging on them?) Regarding the mon, did you see my comment regarding the other sword you posted? Its the same thing with this sword. It is like asking if platinum staples in a wooden frame add anything to the VanGogh painting inside. As a frame, it might be nice to have gold or platinum staples. But the frame is replaceable, the painting is not.* The mon decoration adds and detracts nothing to the value of the sword. You have an Edo period sword in WW2 mountings, and so the mountings are anachronistic for this sword. This is not unusual, as some families re-fitted their heirloom swords with military mounts. But these mounts were more-or-less mass produced, and so their value is not especially high. *Fittings of good quality and in fine condition make the ensemble worth whatever the sword is worth plus the appraisal value of the fittings, with possible a premium for the entire ensemble, especially if it is dai/sho set with matching fittings, or if there is something unique about the fittings. A mon on WW2 mounts is nothing particularly special. But if the mounts are in mint condition they might catch the attention of the military sword buffs.

Hello Sean, The inscription on the tang is 武州住下原廣重 Bushū Shimohara-ju Hiroshige The mon is called umebachi (梅鉢) or plum bowl/pot. http://www.yoroduya.co.jp/kamon/a/umebachi.html

Hello Whitegryphon70, Kinmichi is an "artist's name" that was used by about 24 different swordsmiths (maybe more). There are at least 6 of these who signed it exactly as you have in the sword you posted 「伊賀守金道」 Iga-no-kami Kinmichi. And as Jean points out above, all of the Kinmichi who signed their swords this way worked in the Kyoto area. There is no date inscribed on your sword, so the seller cannot know when it was manufactured (unless he/she radiocarbon-dated the sword!). Seeing as how it has a very shallow sori, my guess from just looking at the sword is that it was forged in the mid-to-late 1600s. As Brian says, it does look like an OK sword - no reproduction. It has a funky circular mark in the hamon (in the second picture), but maybe not a deal-breaker. It looks like it needs a polish, but with all the discussion of the delicate process of polishing going on, I hesitate to even venture into that arena. The shape is one that sword collectors tend to discount. The WWII mountings look fine. Bear in mind this is sort of like talking about how good the frame is on a painting from an old-master. I would question the seller's statement that it is "difficult" to find a blade in this condition. The condition is very average. The interwebz are full of blades in that sort of condition. So, this is sort of a long-winded way of saying, beware of that seller. He's fishing for people who have a weakness for buzzwords like ninja and samurai. If you really just want any old sword from the Edo era, they can be bought for around $1000 (or less if you keep your eyes open). If you have $3000 burning a hole in your pocket, you should set your sights slightly higher and watch this forum for a papered sword from one of the sellers here. Ebay is a dangerous place for people who are just starting to dabble in nihonto.

Yes, the book entry calls it "sturgeon han-dachi koshirae". Sturgeon in Japanese is 蝶鮫 (chōsame or chōzame) which literally translates as "butterfly shark", so-called because the scales resemble butterfles.

Actually there are two readings for 造作 1. ぞうさく to manufacture 2. ぞうさ troublesome　(alternate writing 雑作) ← I wasn't aware of this reading until you mentioned it! http://www.weblio.jp/content/%E9%80%A0%E4%BD%9C But having said that, I'm still not confident of 造 - especially since I found other threads where this same kanji is identified as 謹 (謹作 - kinsaku). I did find a registration certificate for a Kanemasa (from an auction site) that uses 造作. The smith only passed away in 1989...wish I could ask him what it was. I'll tentatively go with 謹作, but to my eyes it really doesn't resemble 謹. http://aucview.aucfan.com/yahoo/s431219078/ http://www.passionmilitaria.com/t83497-kai-gunto-signe-kuriki-kanesada http://www.passionmilitaria.com/t91818-kai-gunto-signe-kuriki-kanesada http://www.swordforum.com/forums/showthread.php?70963-Sword-ID&highlight=kuriki

I think I found it...at least, a modern version of it; http://hirosankim.exblog.jp/10031685/ According to this bloggist, It recalls the feeling that San'yo felt coming out of isolation and seeing the scenery of Miyajima in front of him, and his reflecting on the Battle of Miyajima. 閉門修史出門遊　逐次吟朗上面接　落日蒼茫千古　毛陶戦遽来是前洲 Some of the kanji are out of order in the above, but I believe this is the same poem. San'yo was kept under house arrest of sorts by his father after going missing. Perhaps this poem was written after the punishment was lifted. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Miyajima

Looks like a Chinese-style poem from the Japanese writer/scholar/artist Rai San'yo (頼山陽) from the anthology Chōkijō 暢寄帖. Haven't a clue what it means, but you can find Rai San'yo in Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rai_San%27yo Note: the poem is San'yo's, but the kakejiku is written by someone else (I think...can't see the seals but I would be surprised if it was written by San'yo himself).

Good Morning from Tokyo. Fine, brisk weather today. My smartphone tells me its 5° Celsius with a wind chill making it feel like 0°. It was a good 2015, and I was very happy to become re-acquainted with nihonto and with Nihonto Message Board after an absence of many years. I wonder why I ever drifted away? Anyway, very happy to help out, even if half the time I'm making a wild guess. When studying nihonto I am often reminded of the quote regarding physics supposedly attributable to Richard Feynman; "If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics". I feel like this regarding nihonto. Just when I think I'm starting to grasp the fundamentals, some other variable comes along I realize how much I don't know. So, I'm still a novice, but sometimes I feel like I'm inching my way out of novicehood - many thanks to the people here. Looking forward to more challenges in 2016.

Well, you got the right oshigata, but the translation is wrong. (Not 100% confident of the 造) And the Seki stamp would be 関 You can find out more about these swords and their manufacture here http://ohmura-study.net/211.html And of course, if you use the search function you should be able to find out more at Nihonto Message Board as well.

Hello Paul, Looks like an attempt at either 祐 (suke) or perhaps 若 (waka).

武山義臣　Takeyama Yoshiomi (on the list)

芦葉江 = Ashibagō http://meitou.info/index.php/%E8%8A%A6%E8%91%89%E6%B1%9F 土浦潘 = Tsuchiura-han (Tsuchiura is a location in present-day Ibaraki)

We are talking about the sword in the very top picture, yes? To me it looks like a guntō in undistinguished, non-military mountings. That and the lack of patina on the nakago pushed me in the direction of Showa.