SteveM

昭和十五年八月日 正心 Shōwa Jūgo-nen hachigatu jitsu Seishin (or Shōshin) I think we have seen this smith once before in the thread below. See also the thread here:

Or signed on behalf of the smith by someone else. I wonder how it compared to the Kanemitsu sword in the post below. Unfortunately the photo has gone missing

藤原光長　 Fujiwara Mitsunaga is a name handed down from master to student for several generations, and so it is almost like a brand name. This name was in use from 1709 to 1862 (according to the site below). The three-leaf hollyhock motif inside the border is a family crest, as you may already know. That's about all I know from a quick search on the internet. https://www.morita-stone.co.jp/weblog/sp/2017/06/post_364.html

Ko-mochi kikkō sankai-hishi (Three tiered diamond in double-lined tortoise shell) It is upside down. Maybe there was confusion about the koshirae. (Sword is katana, but koshirae is tachi). kamon credit: https://tenjikuroujin.sakura.ne.jp/t03castle16k3/160319/sub160319

Yes, something like that.

林 = Hayashi, a common surname in Japan.

正真子福本兼宗應 鈴木照雲師需謹而作之 Filling in blanks and one correction. And from Morita-san's earlier thread, I can say the translation is Made by Fukumoto Kanemune at the request of master/sensei Suzuki Shōun

Have an expert take a good look at it in hand. I think everyone who wanted to share an opinion has done so, and other people can't be bothered because they don't see much in the sword to begin with, or they are basically at the same point we are at ("Could be interesting, could be ho-hum. Too hard to tell"). Right now its a mumei sword with loose hada, and its not going to win any prizes in its current state. Get a professional opinion on this before diving deeper.

東田川郡藤島尋常高等小學校 Higashi Tagawa-gun Fujishima Jinjō Kōtō Shōgakkō Fujishima Upper Elementary School, Higashi Tagawa county (a location in Yamagata prefecture)

日本展覧會記念 Nihon Tenrankai Kinen Commemoration of Japan Exposition

I think there is a slight relation to the themes. Mauro's paperwork notes the theme as "drying nets and beach" (干網浦浜). The image on the right side of Mauro's tsuba clearly shows the nets hung up to dry. They look a bit like a tent, which is a similar shape seen on the north quadrant of Luca's tsuba, which also fits in with the plover (千鳥) on the south quadrant. For a different treatment on plover and drying nets, see the tsuba below http://mizusumashi.com/post-11718/ I can't figure out what the other motifs are, but I'm wondering if the shapes on the east/west are sand dunes. On the opposite side I agree with the tsuzumi and sasa, but the connection eludes me. I was thinking summer/winter (drying nets for summer, and sasa for winter on the opposite side) but I don't know what to make of the tsuzumi. The cartwheel motif also seems to be repeated. There has to be an underlying, connecting theme.

Great photos. I wish all swords posted to NMB had such good photos. The nakago doesn't look ubu to me, but it can't have been shortened by too much. At 75.5 cms it feels like a long sword for kanbun, especially if it has been shortened. Anyway, even if its kanbun it's a nice length. I can't tell if its kanbun or older. I think its a good candidate for a polish. The many shallow ware in the sword mean that this wasn't the best work of the best swordsmith, but it seems to be in OK condition other than the light rust. I think it will polish up nicely. The ware won't disappear, and a few might even become more prominent, mind you, but I think the improvement in the hamon and the ji will be worth the effort/risk. The line of rust just behind the yokote (that runs for a few mms parallel to the yokote) might be one yellow flag. Rust is one thing, but if its a crack hiding under the rust its a problem.

陸中国住 = Rikuchūgoku-jū, is my guess. An area in north-east Japan. 祝記念二千六百年為作 = Made in celebration of the 2600th year. Referring to the imperial year counting system. Must be a wartime era sword.

囗　塚原　銘囗囗　 Tsukahara Mei ? ? Super curious to see what this says. I think it might say that Tsukahara is the one who cut the very elegant mei. Annoying how that mekugi-ana just about obliterates that kanji. The kanji after 銘 also has the same 金 radical, but I can't figure it out. 鎚 (kanazuti) maybe? Hoping someone can figure out the rest. Note: Tsukahara was the name of another Seki smith, so it could be a gassaku (although I don't think that's what the mei says)

江府住 - Kōfu-jū 逸平義久 - Itsuhira Yoshihisa

Even the badly-rusted tsuba is a problem. I am not saying throw it away, but I definitely wouldn't want that tsuba touching a newly-polished sword.

I would be more than moderately worried. Its just unbelievable that the seppa and their function would be unknown to anyone working with Japanese swords. Its also unbelievable that a restorer or polisher wouldn't have already advised Andrew of the steps to restoring a sword and scabbard. I don't think the current saya/koshirae is worth restoring. I think you should make a new one. Keep the old parts as part of the provenance of the sword, if you like, but unless there is some redeeming feature to these parts I think you should retire them and make an entirely new koshirae using vintage metal bits. The koshirae you have now is a funky ww2 koshirae with a badly degraded leather cover, and a tsuka that is literally falling apart. There is no significant historical value in these items. Better to make a new koshirae with vintage parts than to try to bandage up a much-degraded mid-20th century koshirae.

Very much the real deal, issued in 1943.

Imperial year 2600 is 1940 (or, Showa 15, if you like). The other site mentioned he stopped swordmaking after the war.

昭 - Shō 和 - wa 十 - jū 八 - hachi 年 - nen As usual, these kanji are written in a cursive shorthand, which can look quite different from the printed form or most fonts used in computers. Especially the last word, nen, looks so abbreviated it scarcely resembles the printed version.

Maybe also try "Hakata Urasaki" dolls

Year is Showa 18.

Wakayama lists tsuba-maker Haruma (春馬) as a relative of Tsunemasa (both of the Bamen family). I think the ebay seller is mistaken about the reading of the smith for the listing: I don't see how Yoshimasa could be possible for 序政. Wakayama only lists Tsunemasa as a possible reading, but Nobumasa could be another possibility, and indeed the Japanese reference page that the seller posted on the ebay listing says "Nobumasa". I tend to defer to Wakayama, so I'll stick with Tsunemasa.

色絵 昆虫類

In addition to being wrong, the way the year is cut is also horrible - as in unskilled, amateurish, clumsy. Meanwhile, the actual mei, Kanekuni, is skillfully done. The two sides are done by different hands. Note, the kanji character 一 (one) can easily be made into a 十 (ten) with the addition of a vertical stroke, so even if the person who wrote the year mistakenly wrote 一三 instead of 十三, the mistake could have easily been fixed. But on this sword the mistake is just left there, unfinished. It makes me think someone, maybe non-Japanese, was using this sword to practice carving in steel. The single stroke after the 一三 isn't placed in the right spot or the right angle for 年, so that mark also makes me question who was holding the engraving tools and what their intention was. Plus, I think the language used to describe the sword is intended to deceive, and is in its own way, horrible. The dealer is playing a shell game with words; is it a samurai sword? a katana? a gendaito? He is adamant that it isn't a showato. Already the newbie is being bamboozled by buzzwords. Was it picked up off the battlefield, or was it assembled afterwards from various parts? It has an arsenal stamp, but it is "clearly, and without question" a handmade blade? The stamp alone causes us to question it. The funky 一三 for the date causes us to question it. It seems to be a frankensword that the dealer is trying to sell as something more than what it actually is, and I guess he was successful. I also have several complaints about syntax and grammar used in the description. And my pet peeve is using the word "samurai" to describe swords of the 20th century, but these are petty compared to the other complaints.