Moijwall

Guys, Thanks a lot for the translation and all the good advice! I completly understand that it is a chinese fake but I will keep it. As it then actually isn't worth anything I might even use it for some tamashageri. All the best! Michael

Here are some more pictures, chinese or not If there is any interest I can try to take some better photos of the blade in daylight on Saturday. But even for that I need some advice: What is the best background? I will follow your advice Gakusee! All the best! Michael

Hi again, Forget my question, I just found out with the help of Mr. Google that Nobuhide was born Kurihara Kenji. So all 6 Kanji is translated "Kurihara Kenji Nobuhide" and is his full name and signature. I'm learning, although not fast! BR Michael

Hi and thanks a lot! You are amazingly fast! And accurate! I know the photo isn't the best but its only purpose was to show 6 kanji for translation. We are in the mid of the winter here in Sweden which means that it is kind of dark 24/7 (it might be some light while I'm at work). And I don't have a clue on how to take photos of Katanas So I´m afraid the photos I just took wont be much better, sorry for that. But measures you can get with some accurancy: Length (cutting part): 73.5 cm Curvature: 1.7 cm Nakago:19.5 cm Kissaki: 4.0cm If I understand your reaction correctly Nobuhide is not a swordsmith you would expect from a cheap sword found in Sweden by accident? So it might be a gimei, I paid $350 for it so it is no big deal and I like it. But there is something that I do not understand with the translation as such that seems obvious to all of you: Kurihara - Is an old Japanese province - fine with that Kenji - Is a Japanese era 1275-1278 - does not match the smith nor the blade Nobuhide - Lived between 1814-1880 - to good So I guess that "Kenji" means something else to you? Here are some new bad photos of the whole sword. I will follow up with some photos of the other stuff. And again, thanks for your interest! BR Michael

Hi, Short story long: I have played with a bokken for many years. A couple of years ago I got myself an Iaito. And last week I bought a katana, nothing fancy or expensive but hopefully not a Chinese copy. The old man I bought it from had owned it for 30 years and according to him a person with some insight in Katanas had dated it to late 1800 or early 1900. He himself knew nothing about Katanas but he had collected weapons in general and bought it as it was beautiful. The thing is that he claimed that it wasn’t signed which I thought was sad but accepted. When I got it home I disassembled it and to my surprise I did find a 6 kanji signature. Maybe this is ridicules easy but I seem to get nowhere. Assuming that the 2 first Kanji is the province I have tried some internet sites to decipher it without success. Then I tried some of the Kanji translators to decode some of the other. Especially the 4:th one looked simple but I failed there as well. (Most likely my incompetence but a fail nevertheless.) Can I even assume 1-2 to province, 3-4 date and 5-6 smith? Any help is highly appreciated!