SteveM

It is a poorly cut "Kanemoto". There are a million smiths who used the name Kanemoto, so maybe one of them signed with this weird style. It looks a bit suspicious to me though. Note that Kanemoto is one of the most commonly forged signatures. As always, the sword is more important than the signature.

The date is fine. It shouldn't be troubling to you. More importantly, the NBTHK thinks its fine.

It was either an amazing bargain, or a wasted $1000. Looking at the tsuba close-up alone I was suspicious. Looking at the ensemble, I'm now a bit more curious about these. But I am always suspicious when there is a mei on an item/items and the owner pleads ignorance. Anybody savvy enough to set up a Yahoo Auction account is savvy enough to figure out a mei, one way or another.

In a country famous for earthquakes, I don't think I'd want a katana-kake with bare katana resting over my head.

Right side: 明珎宗義囗之　Myōchin Muneyoshi (?) kore Left side:　一芳斎元胤造 Ippōsai Gan'in tsukuru Ippōsai Gan'in would be the art name of Myōchin Muneyoshi. I'm away from my books for a while. Will have to rely on others for verification/validation. * Watch out for fakes/forgeries.

大正三年八月日 百錬第九号為熊田源太郎氏 Taishō 3, August Hyaku-ren dai kyūgō tame Kumada Gentarō shi Made for Gentarō Kumada, "hyaku-ren", No. 9 ("Hyaku-ren" = hundred trials/temperings, euphemism for "strength through repetition"). I don't understand the "Number 9" reference. Maybe it has some signifigance when used with hyaku-ren, but in this case I think it might refer to the style of blade. Maybe someone else can confirm, or offer a better explanation. Gentarō Kumada was a local politician, businessman, and philanthropist. I don't know if the name on the sword refers to the exact same person, but my guess is that it does, and that this sword was presented to the Gentarō Kumada mentioned above. http://www.hakusan-museum.jp/kuretake/about/

I think you are right for all of these. For the Kanekado, it looks like 一月日　(ichi-gatsu no hi) January

Doesn't look like a bonji to me, but I'm not sure what it is.

It's dated 2600 (Imperial Year), which is 1940 in the western calendar. The writing on the right side is a bunch of patriotic slogans. The writing on the bottom are the people who signed the flag. The left side is a spiritual reference, the name of the person to whom the flag was presented: Katō Sadaharu, and a weird "Yay!" kind of exclamation. Probably had significance to the people presenting the flag, but its lost on me. Usually these are presented by schools or factories or neighborhood associations, sending colleagues off to war. As with all antiques, the market is flooded with fakes and imitations.

Sounds good to me!

江州國友藤兵衛重當 Kōshū Kunitomo Tōbei Jūtō (?) I don't know the pronunciation for the last two characters.

Possibly some kind of cloud crest. See examples here http://kisetsumimiyori.com/kumo/ But it looks more like a design element than a crest to me. There is a long thread on this site called something like "identify our mon" . It has a bunch of information on it.

Sure - often we see a name and an address (on the same kind of simple wooden tag), but it seems normal to me to also identify a sword with the unit or workplace from where it was collected. Looks authentic to me.

Moriyama-san is the guy who provided you with the translation of the saya in post #4. Japan's internal fighting ended more-or-less by 1615. Your sword could be from that era - the Muromachi era. The number of mekugi-ana isn't much of a clue. Better to look at the shape of the sword, length, tip, and activities in the hamon. From what I can see in the picture, I wouldn't guess Muromachi. Probably post 1600, but the angle doesn't give us much to go on. At 21 inches (measured tip to the notch where the tang starts) it is wakizashi size.

Name on the sword is 包囗　(kane-something). The writing on the scabbard looks like a buddhist incantation, but nothing pops up when I do an internet search. Pictures of the full sword itself are usually better than close-ups of the tang area.

第一船司廣島支部 First Shipping Command, Hiroshima Branch

I think you are referencing a different Shigetsugu. The one you mention above is 茂継. Or another who did in 1966 is 繁継. The one on your sword is 茂次. All are pronounced Shigetsugu, but they are different people.

Looks like 茂次 (Shigetsugu) using an alternative form of 茂. I could be wrong. Markus Sesko lists only one smith named Shigetsugu, and from the looks of your sword the smith is different from the one Markus lists. Could also be a fake signature.

I think you've got it!

The letters on the tsuba are part of the design, rather than a mei. 七十二才雪舟筆 Nanajūni-sai Sesshū hitsu Sesshu drew this at age 72. It is (presumably) an homage to the ink painter Sesshū. The letters inside the cartouche also say "Sesshū", in seal script The mei inside the gold cartouche on the top tsuba is 囗乗 (something -jō) I'd look through a list of the Gotō artists that used the kanji character 乗 to see if any look promising. I think we can rule out 宗、栄、壱、謙、廉、覚、顕、程. These are the obvious ones...

備州長船勝光　Bishū Osafune Katsumitsu Compare with this one here https://www.touken-world.jp/search/22548/

Looks like a funky sōsho rendition of 寿

Yes, usually the cutter's name is part of the saidan-mei, but not on this one, unless I've misread a name as something else. There are two bits that I didn't quite understand (為出生、以首) but they don't look like names. Still, it looks like a legitimate dedication to me. 1867 would have been at the very tail end of the cutting tests. Could be the tester didn't want any attention drawn to himself. Or, it could be the people presenting it to Mr. Minamiyama didn't want to upstage him, and wanted only his name on it. But those are just wild guesses.

小本太夫　Komoto Dayū (other readings possible). Could be a real name, could be a fake name. I don't think you'll find any swordsmiths with this name, so its almost assuredly not a mei. Maybe some random person who wrote his name on his sword. Could be a name someone scribbled on to the sword to make it look somehow authentic. Looks a bit deliberate to be scratched by some random guy, but who knows. (Dayū would be a strange name for a guy, so it probably has a different reading).

法久作　Norihisa-saku Norihisa is a modern swordsmith.