SteveM

I'm afraid its just a jumble of kanji-like fragments, and perhaps some earnest attempts at copying real kanji. If I were being very generous I would say the kanji resemble something like the below, with the boxes representing illegible kanji. 正真囗囗肥囗 まさざね囗囗ひ囗 Masazane (something) (something) Hi (something) But in truth, the 正真 doesn't look anything like a sayagaki rendering of these kanji. As for the rest, 肥 is recognizable, but normally one would expect to see 後 after 肥, since 肥後 is a famous sword-making region and is quite common in signatures. In addition, the kanji 肥 itself is somewhat rare except for this one location name, and so the combination could hardly be anything but 肥後, 肥前, or perhaps 肥州, but as you can see from the sayagaki, the kanji after 肥 doesn't resemble any of these. I'm afraid it looks like somebody not familiar with kanji made an amateur attempt at fabricating a sayagaki.

Your reading is correct. It raises a question about the kantei-sho.

I would say the sayagaki is beyond crude and is into a completely different level of misery. The wakizashi is also a worry. I hate to be a buzzkill, so I will end on a good note by saying that I agree your scanner did a very impressive job!

Nobukuni (信国), more likely.

Nōshū-ju Kawasaki Nagamitsu Saku 濃州住川崎長光作 Kawasaki Nagamitsu is the name of the smith. Nōshū is the name of the area in which he worked.

I think 濃州(関住)人源天秀（謹作之）　 Nōshū (seki-jū) nin Minamoto Amahide (Kinsaku kore) The part in parenthesis is a guess. Compare to the one here http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/hanabishimn/GALLERY/show_image.html?id=3926720&no=1 I cannot read the mei on the cat. I suspect gimei.

Yes, its a stylized 美. Its not uncommon to find it written like this in signatures. 笹穂槍　銘　政常　美濃守藤原

I think 美濃守

Sorry Tobias... I tried, but its a bit too cryptic. Nice piece, though.

My kanji is wrong! 長村清宣 For the reading, I took it from here. http://www.e-sword.jp/sale/2012/1210_1094syousai.htm Another one here... but I readily admit these auction sites are not authoritative. http://www.ribendao.com/en/gunto/122-%E9%95%BF%E6%9D%91%E6%B8%85%E5%AE%A3%E9%94%BB%E4%B9%8B.html For those who are curious, 宣 can be read as both nobu and nori (and a million other ways). He's a Showa smith, so you'd think there would be more information on him, particularly how to pronounce his name.

以安来鋼兼真謹作 Yasukihagane (wo) motte Kanezane Kinsaku The Yasu (安) has been completely obliterated, but this is the only possible kanji it could be.

Nagamura Kiyonori 長村清宜, I think.

Guido beat you to it, about three days ago. (咊 is a variant of 和)

The date on the sword is 2602 (二千六百二年). This is the year according to the Imperial calendar system, and corresponds to 1942. The imperial calendar system was a favorite of swordsmiths during the war years.

May also be interesting for those who have some familiarity with Japanese to use the site below. You can input any kanji and it will give you various tensho font styles for that kanji. (You can also change to koinsho, etc..) http://font.designers-garage.jp/ds/execute/FontSearch?searchType=1&saleType=0&category=09

No, this is a different Toshihide. There is a noted smith by this name (Asai Toshihide) but your sword seems to be made by a different Toshihide (sorry to be confusing, but many smiths used the same or similar names). I say it seems to be different, but his signature could have changed over time. In any event, it doesn't look like any of the Toshihide signatures I've seen on other swords by him. Mind you, I only know this smith from the 10 minutes research I've done today with the help of Google. Don't use sand paper on the blade. Don't worry about any rust on it just yet. Search on this site for tips on how to clean rust off. There is a very recent thread featuring a story similar to yours (rusty sword found in someone's attic). The short version is that if you use anything more abrasive than a towel or a wooden spoon, you will likely muck up your sword. One of the gendaito afficionados can explain better than I can, but your sword is probably one of three types: 1. traditionally forged sword 2. mass-produced sword 3. fake sword made in some random factory somewhere If its been in an attic since the war, then its a good bet its either 1 or 2 above (although fakes abound, from all eras). Since the smith took some time to add his name to it, and the date (1942) on the reverse, there is a good chance it is from the first group, and is a traditionally-made sword. In this case you should take good care of it, even if that means just keeping it lightly oiled so that it doesn't get any rustier. You can search on this site, etc.. for information on the process and expense of polishing Japanese swords. The short answer is: expensive - maybe £1000 for a ballpark figure. For WW2 swords its an expense that may be more than the sword is worth - a labor of love, if you will. For the other bits of the puzzle; manufacturing process, history, etc... you can search this site and the internet at large. There are lots of resources for learning about WW2 blades. The silk on the handle looks OK to me. Its definitely aged, and its hiding some rusting menuki, but the wrapping itself is OK. No need to rush into any restoration work yet, until you figure out what kind of blade you have. One of the gents here can provide the name of someone in the UK who knows a good blade when he sees one. Once you know if you have a great blade, or a very average one, you can figure out how much you want to spend restoring it. I urge you to fight the temptation to take the rust off using anything abrasive (sandpaper, commercially available polishing stones, etc...). The rust is fine for now.

I definitely defer to the gunto experts (which I certainly am not). My comment was more along the lines of "I didn't know such a thing existed". But for sure an interesting innovation. Must have had a problem with the sayas accumulating dirt and water during the war? Interesting piece.

You are right, Stephen. Toshihide (敏秀)

Hello Grev, If you look on the bottom of the page at the link below, you will find tensho renderings of kanji used in Japanese. It may be of some help/interest to you. The three remaining ones are a bit enigmatic. I'm wondering if they haven't lost some of the inlay bits that would make the kanji complete. For example, the kanji you've identified as being in the middle of the front of the tsuba looks like it might be missing the inlay from the top section. I've taken that photo and added a red line to show you what I mean. (It still doesn't help me identify what kanji it is, but maybe it will jog something loose somewhere). http://www.bellemore.co.jp/mean.html

I wouldn't go overboard trying to clean off the rust from the nakago. If it has been hidden in that tsuka for over 60 years, I would think/hope the rust has stabilized by now. Keep the whole thing lightly oiled until next April, or until somebody with a bit of knowledge can take a look.

Looks legit. Interesting. http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/mononofu_hayate/57303194.html

Try this (its not very different from any other script, although depending upon how fancy/illegible/inscrutible you wish it to be, it can be quite intricate). Lovely tsuba, by the way.

Starting to get interesting... I couldn't see any kanji through the rust, but the shape is very nice.

Looks like the type of thing that would be used in tea-ceremony. The big bowl would be for tea (matcha) and the small plate would be to hold sweets.

Can you post a picture that shows the whole tsuba, instead of just the close-ups of the kanji bits? The top right kanji is 音 oto (sound),　bottom right is probably 味 aji (taste) but without knowing where they sit in relation to the other ones, its hard to say or even guess what the overall message is.