SteveM

Back with my books: Wakayama says there is an unidentified artist who signed his pieces with 深船齊 (Shinsensai). There is no information on the artist, just the mei and Wakayama's one-word description "unknown". It is slightly rare that Wakayama lists a mei with the word "unknown". It just means he is aware of pieces that carry that particular mei, but he has no information on the artist. Also, there is a late Meiji - early Taishō artist named Kawasaki Toshihiro, who used the gō of 真船齊 (also 真船亭). I feel its possible that this guy could somehow be related to your 深船齊

Too hard to say. The text itself is too generic to make any determination. The direction of the writing isn't a foolproof indication of vintage (both directions are possible throughout the war years), but yes I'd say right-to-left would be a stronger indication of a wartime item. This piece is left-to-right. All in all, this item is just too generic to make any claim about vintage.

深船齊？　Shinsensai I'm away from my books, so I'm shooting from the hip here. Hopefully someone can give better info (the last one doesn't feel right) Hamano Toshihiro used the gō of Shinsensai (真船齊), but the signature in the photo uses a different kanji for "Shin". But maybe this is somehow related?

The abbreviated version of kuni (国) has been around since at least Muromachi times (for example, in the sword below). Its use on any sword isn't an indicator of date of manufacture. https://www.touken-world.jp/search/20831/

柳川住久国作　 Yanagawa-jū Hisakuni saku Check out the thread below for more info. On the reverse side is 護国 (Gokoku), "protect the country", probably just meant as a patriotic phrase given that this smith is a wartime smith. There are indeed a few temples called "Gokoku-ji", but without any more info it would be hard to determine whether this is intended to be a connection with one of the Gokoku temples, or is just a generic patriotic phrase.

波平安囗　= Naminohira Yasu- something Maybe 安延 Yasunobu?

Hello - it is a name: Tanaka (田中). One of the most common family names in Japan.

Tessai the tsuba-maker died before Tessai the painter was born, so I think the naming is just a coincidence.

I've never done it myself, so this may just add to the noise, but I found a sword engraver on Twitter (in Japanese). He doesn't leave any contacting info, but you might try contacting him through Twitter. An engraving will take several weeks to complete, more or less depending on the complexity. There may also be a waiting time. so I think its going to take many weeks to get a sword engraved and then get the export permission. Also, I also believe that it would better to do this with a gendaitō. I really do feel that putting a vanity engraving on an old sword is a kind of vandalism.

Yeah - I've been watching this from a distance as: a) I can't make out any of the writing, so I don't have much to offer the discussion, and b) I feel that even if we could say for sure that it was a number, or a name, or some generic assembly mark ("this way up") it wouldn't give us many useful clues as to the nature of the item or the funky wrapping. It does look numerical, but I don't think its worth trying to clean it any more or take more pictures.

Looking at the signatures side by side, I can see some differences that look problematic. Yours is on the left, and the authenticated one on the right. Anyway, false signatures are incredibly common in the sword world. As I mentioned before, don't go thinking your sword is junk because it probably has a false signature on it. Its still an antique, hand-forged Japanese sword. Maybe its 200 years old, or 300 years old - hard to say. Take care of it and keep the rust away. You can always send the sword to Japan to get authenticated (at some cost and effort). Or, you can bring it to one of the authentication sessions that are held in the US once or twice a year.

Mei is as commented on by the guys at Reddit 井上真改　　Inoue Shinkai 天和二年八月日　　Tenna ninen hachigatsu hi (August 1682) Inoue Shinkai died in November of that year, so this sword would be one of the last he made in his lifetime, assuming the mei is legitimate. As luck would have it, there is an authenticated Shinkai sword made in, and dated with, the same year. This sword has been authenticated, so we can be reasonably confident it is an actual Inoue Shinkai sword. https://www.e-sword.jp/sale/0810_2040syousai.htm You'll notice the sword above has an imperial chrysanthemum inscribed on it. Inoue Shinkai was allowed the use of this emblem a decade or so earlier (can't remember the exact date), and from that point on his swords have this emblem on them. Yours could be an outlier, but obviously with a big name like Inoue Shinkai, the scrutiny becomes much more demanding than it does for a medium or low-ranked smith. Yours looks slightly shortened because the hamon runs well into the nakago. The Shinkai blade linked above has the hamon ending right at the notch where the blade stops and the nakago (handle, tang) begins. The butt end of your sword is also slightly pointed, whereas Shinkai blades have a more rounded butt-end, but this might not be such a huge issue. The inscription for the date is also done in a different style to the one linked. The one linked uses a cursive style of handwriting, whereas yours is more or less standard "block" style letters. So, given the big name, and given the slightly problematic inscription, I'd be skeptical of it being a genuine Shinkai blade. But the real test is the blade itself, and I think its too hard to say anything definitively given the current state of your sword. Regardless, yours is a real, antique sword from Japan's feudal period, so it should be preserved and cared for. Links on care and handling should be somewhere near the top of this page. 　

Published by Kankōdō (甘古堂) in November, 1907. Kankōdō is the publishing name of Inuzuka Kankō (aka Inuzuka Matabei) 百鐔之図　Images of 100 tsuba

That's close: In Japanese folklore, the patterns on the surface of the moon look like a rabbit making mochi rice cakes. The story of Chikubushima is when a noble of the court of Emperor Daigo travelled to the shrine of Benzaiten on Chikubushima (an unpopulated island in Lake Biwa, near Kyoto). He asks an old fisherman and a maiden if he can borrow their boat to the island. They oblige and take him there. While travelling to the island the image of the rabbit on the moon was reflected in the waves. When they reach the island, he finds out that the old man is actually the dragon god of Lake Biwa, and the maiden is Benzaiten herself. This story comes from a Noh play. This idea of "rabbit reflected on waves" turned into a meme of its own, and is a popular design on Japanese crafts. I guess it is a story of good fortune, as well as of the beauty of the moon and Lake Biwa. I think many dealers would just label this as "rabbit and waves", and might miss the Chikubushima Noh play reference since it is slightly obscure nowadays. (I had to dig around to find an adequate explanation myself). https://www.the-noh.com/en/plays/data/program_027.html https://www.iris-hermit.com/ranking/jpg/tikubusima.html Edit: fixed a few mistakes.

楠多門兵衛正成 Kusunoki Tamon Hyōei Masanari 五郎入道正宗 Gorō Nyūdō (Masamune) 志津三郎源兼氏 Shizu Saburō Minamoto (Kaneuji) 元弘元年二月 Genkō gannen (ni)gatsu The first three lines are names. I can't read the bits in red, but I can guess at them from looking at other items like this one. The last line is a date: February 1331. These seem to be common inscriptions on items like this. I don't know the back story of why other kabutowari also carry these inscriptions. They are not the smiths who made the item, and the item was not made in 1334. Probably made sometime in the 1800s. Someone else on the board may know.

There is no province on this card. The province (or prefecture) should be listed after the text that says "Registration Number", but this space on your card is blank. The red circle on the Tokuho Certificate just indicates the card was issued by the "National Committee for the Protection of Cultural Properties".

大森英満（花押）　 Ōmori Terumitsu (kaō)　　　 The version of mori used on the piece is a variant of 森.

延 = nobu

Hello Don, Kawamura Tadatsuna. Same one as in this thread below.

Yes, that's the guy.

木下鉄齊造　　Made by Kinoshita Tessai Edit: Piers beat me to it on another thread.

Hi Jussi - was there a price for the set, or was it just for display?

As someone above mentioned, it may be red lacquer. Lacquer was, once upon a time, commonly used as a protectant and sealant.

The paper says the signature is "Moritsugu" and their attribution of Takada Moritsugu is affirming the signature. The bit after the signature (on the paper) is "大永" which is repeated at the bottom, indicating the approximate era.

The writing says: 靖利 Yasutoshi 昭和十四年三月吉日　A lucky day in March, Shōwa 14 (1939)