Bugyotsuji

Tsukurō and Kujūrō seem to be common ways to read 九十郎

I've not seen a signature split like that before but I can see the reason for it. Late Edo at the earliest sounds about right. How would a seppa sit onto that design? (Nice design by the way) Could the Mei be 定平 Sadahira (or 次平 Tsuguhira), I wonder?

It does say he was the 7th gen smith of the Tashiro family line, serving Daté in Sendai.

No estimated year, but Shin-shintō, it says.

https://www.samuraishokai.jp/sword/09137.html Might be related 仙台住白龍子永繁　 Katana [Hakuryushi_Nagashige]

This thread is tapping at my shell, but it sounds like a complicated world out there. It is tempting to put my Namban together in one place and force my brain to try and categorize them. Many thanks for the patient teaching so far…

As Jean adds above, many blades were repurposed, into shorter blades, blades for cutting flowers in tea ceremony too, (especially if they had a good Mei), etc. I have also seen a collection of old Nakago with Mei. Even in Japan I have recently seen experimental transformations made with old broken blades into hunting or camp knives. (A Wakizashi I have in formal Koshiraé looks to have once been a full-length Yosozaemon Sukesada blade.)

Call that a sword?

In the top photo the first part of the left column looks to have been rubbed away.

You mean the two marks on the surface of the stand? 決 and… (弓?) The photo is pretty fuzzy. Most Japanese characters come from Chinese anyway so there is often little difference. There are strong national differences in the style of writing the very same characters. These ones look to have been written by a Chinese person, I would guess. These ivory balls are as you say typically Chinese.

Thank you John and Colin. This is all grist to the mill. Step by step one gets to Rome.

For reference, I have seen this kind of ‘Nagoya’ Tsuba described as 山銅Yamagané.

PS This quote may be describing the difference between Yamakin and Shinchū but without a background in metallurgy my comprehension rate is sluggish at best. Higo metalworker artisans liked working in Yamakin, it mentions. 肥後金工が好んで使う「山金」は、素銅に鉛・砒素・アンチモンなどの他の金属を混ぜた合金で、銅山から産出されたままの銅では無く使用目的や色合いを考慮して配合工夫されています。 　話は変わりますが、銅の合金である真鍮（黄銅）も、銅と亜鉛の配合比率によって色が違ってくるということです。 From a discussion on copper, here: https://ameblo.jp/o-deco-3/entry-12170960771.html

This Tsuba was described as “Yamagané, not Shinchū” (i.e. not brass). Having looked at many examples of 山銅 Yamagané though, they generally seem to be more of a dark reddish brown copper material. There was also 山金 which is to be read Yamakin (although many people read this Yamagané, mistakenly?) Are we aware of these differences in the namings, and what are your thoughts on the material of this hexagonal Wakizashi Tsuba? Seems yellower than brass. Note natural/artificial (?) mottling on surface. Thick, flat, rounded mimi. 7.2 cm x 6.0 cm x 0.45 cm.

So how does it look inside, and what is wrong with it, Peter?