SteveM

I have never heard or read that. I would be surprised if that were the case. As John says above, I don't think there is any significant weight differential between the two.

I'm thinking 備後国東城住小鳥宜邦 Bingo no kuni Tōjō-jū Kotori Nobukuni (or Yoshikuni, or Masakuni, etc...). The four dots on the bottom of that kanji are the giveaway, and also there is still a location with the name 小鳥原 in what would have been Tōjō Bingo (present day Hiroshima). Except it has an unusual pronunciation 小鳥原 hitotobara, so I don't know exactly how this inscription might be pronounced. (The region's website says this area used to be a steel-producing area). But...as John above, and I suspect Piers too, I couldn't find any smith with the name 宜邦 in any of my references or searches. Unfortunately, the hay-whacking years have really taken their toll on this poor blade, so I don't think there is much to salvage.

Motif on kashira is pine needles. You can see more of the same here http://www.tokka.biz/fittings/FK168.html And a nice tsuba which would make a good matching set here (same shop, actually) http://www.tokka.biz/fittings/TS642.html Not sure about the fuchi as I can't get a good look at it (normally one would assume its the same, though). Interesting sword. I wonder about the boshi...maybe this together with the unusual yasurime is is an indication the blade was re-shaped.

村山国次　Murayama Kunitsugu.

As above - looks like typical shobu-zukuri. From the looks of the tang I'd guess that it has not been shortened. I don't have a clue about the marks. They don't look military, and neither does the size or the shape of the sword. Shinto would also be my guess. The polish will most likely cost more than you could recover in re-sale (but it would definitely improve the appearance).

Interesting mark, interesting inscription. I've never seen the crane emblem on a sword before. It is a kamon, but I don't know if it has some other significance here on the sword. Here are some families that use the "crane-in-circle" kamon. http://www.ippongi.com/2009/01/15/tsuru/ The inscription on the reverse side to the Tadahiro inscription is also interesting. Looks like it says 囗宝來山作　(something Horai-san saku) I can't make out the first kanji - it reminds me of 挫, but the kanji on the sword is different. Horai-san is the name of a shrine, and so my guess would be that this sword was made near, or somehow connected with Horai-san shrine. Maybe the crane motif is also connected to the shrine. http://houraisan.com/

On the fuchi and kashira is a family crest of triple oak leaf in circle (丸に三つ葉柏). It is the crest belonging to a number of family names in Japan (eg. Makino, Yamauchi, etc). Alas, these names are very common, so I'm afraid you couldn't pinpoint the original owners by looking at this alone. (But perhaps it is some indication that the person who ordered the koshirae was a person who had a bit of disposable cash and could spend it on bling. I think the gold-lacquer tipped saya also is evidence of this.).

My guess is 家吉　Ieyoshi

They are random kanji numbers stamped on to the nakago: 6, 3, something, 5. The "something" may have been a 4 that has had another kanji stamped over it.

New feature-film on Japanese swords opening in Japan at end of May. I don't know much about this... it just popped up in one of my social media feeds. http://toukenmovie.jp/

Doesn't look particularly strange to me. A few of the transliterations of the tag are wrong: should be Takehara (and I'm not quite sure if he was a Major or not. Maybe Chief Warrant Officer? 兵曹長?). Can't find any reference for this Matsumoto Platoon either. But the sword itself and the fittings look OK.

I thought this one was exceptional. Its about sword-polishing. Another poster linked to it in a recent thread. I was fascinated by the life and the dedication and the various twists their stories took. It may have been posted in the thread discussing the potential of westerners to become established polishers and then passing on their craft to other westerners. You can see in this documentary it takes a certain kind of dedication and acceptance of (submission to?) tradition to pursue this calling.

Yes, Jussi is correct. The reverse side looks like 昭和二十年三月 Shōwa 20 (1945), March

Yoroi Bitsu http://www.xn--u9j370humdba539qcybpym.jp/archives/4760 Sometimes you see them on display in the tokonoma of a Japanese room, but I kind of doubt this was general practice in Edo times.

You're fired. Pick up your check and take a shower. I want your locker cleared before noon. In your searchings for Awataguchi + Tadatsuna, did you never come across the following? It is a pretty big name in the sword world. (Give it one last chance before you look at the answer...)

What the...? Now you are not even trying... give Google a whirl and see if Awataguchi + Tadatsuna turns up something useful.

Very close! If you got Awataguchi and Tadatsuna, the middle three kanji should be a cinch. Google-sensei can give you a nudge in the right direction. (hint: its not Fujiwara).

As Thomas mentioned above, your sword was shortened (i.e. the bottom bit of the tang was cut off) presumably so it could fit into the WW2 mounts, but the shortening could have happened earlier for a number of reasons. It is not at all uncommon. It's called suriage, and if you search this site and others you can find a lot of articles about it, why it was done, etc... For the other sword, it would be better if you could get rid of the white paint - the white paint distracts from the smaller, but nonetheless important strokes in the inscription. As it is I think it is probably 酒向兼義 (Sako Kaneyoshi) or possibly even 酒向兼茂 (Sako Kaneshige) which would be a weird coincidence because there was a post very recently with this same smith. I would suggest removing the white paint and trying to get some macro (or close to it) photos of the inscription.

1873, maybe? Look at the entry here... I think this is your man. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uchida_Kuichi

忠行　Tadayuki

Hello Joe, You need to go a bit farther down on that site, where it shows all the combinations of the zodiac signs and what they correspond to in the gregorian calendar. Look for this particular combination on line 57 after the Twelve Earthly Branches chart. The kanji don't represent individual numerals, they represent a position on a 60-year cycle that keeps repeating. Since Shōwa lasted longer than 60 years, there are a few zodiac combinations that repeat themselves within Shōwa. But Shōwa is an outlier, and usually eras are much, much shorter, and so there is no ambiguity about what year the combination refers to.

The writing in the white box says "富嶽三十六景" (Thirty Six Views of Fugaku/Fuji), as well as the name of this print, which is listed as #2 in the series in the wikipedia entry. The other line (outside the box) is the artist's name. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty-six_Views_of_Mount_Fuji Sometimes there is a printer's mark or cartouche on the margin of the print that points to a time frame. It would be tough to tell the printer just from looking at the print.

乗意　Jyōi　　（I think) Wakayama says that Nagaharu 永春 was one of his "art" names (Go - 号）

This one (kan-man) might look a bit closer to the mark. (Respectfully lifted from a Rakuten site...) http://item.rakuten.co.jp/kuubokumon/a-2/

Kan-man (不動明王) makes sense, but I'm starting to think the one on the right has the wrong orientation, and ought to be rotated 180 degrees (and the top bonji would be the one for Bishamon-ten 毘沙門天)