Ray Singer

Takasaki Saburo Kaneshige

Looks like: Yasutsugu oite Echizen kore o saku

Looks like 上野守菅原包宗 - (Kozuke no kami Sugawara Kanemune)

I am guessing you know, but the mei side is: Bishu Osafune Sukesada.

Eisho gannen hachi gatsu hi A day in the 8th month of the year 1504

It is very common for signatures to change over the course of a swordsmith's career. However the immediate flag there is that the inscriptions of many famous modern swordsmiths are being faked. You see this all the time from certain sellers on eBay who put inexpensive fake shinsakuto up for sale which often have the mei of mukansa and other well known gendai artists. This is really the case of a picture being worth a thousand words. I would suggest that you post photos of the sword that you're evaluating for feedback from the group.

The blade is signed Naminohira Yasutsune. The tsuba looks like a modern, decorative replica.

A day in the 8th month of the year 1522. Daiei ni nen hachi gatsu hi

Noshu Seki ju Kanetoshi saku. Showa era (20th century)

There isn't a kanji which reads Tuji. Is it perhaps Kaneuji or Kanetsuji? Maybe Shizu Kaneuji, who is one of the most famous swordsmiths of all, and worked as a student of Masamune. A later generation worked around the same time period you asked about. KANEUJI (兼氏), Kanbun (寛文,1661-1673), Mino - "Shizu Saburō Minamoto Kaneuji”(志津三郎源兼氏), real name Töyama Jinjūrō (遠山甚十郎), he lived in Ogaki (大垣) in Mino province, by the shinto-era, the lineage of Kaneuji had split into the Ogaki, Gifu (岐阜), and Seki branches that were locally active until the Meiji era, the Ögaki line smiths bore the family name Toyama and the Seki line smiths the family name Fukuchi (福地)

https://sanmei.com/c...nts/en-us/p1925.html Edit: Peter beat me to it. Kanetoki.

Web search: https://www.google.com/search?q="bitchu"+"Yasuhiro"&oq="bitchu"+"Yasuhiro"&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCDkyMjdqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 Nihonto Message Board search: https://www.google.com/search?q="bitchu"+"Yasuhiro"+site%3Awww.militaria.co.za&sca_esv=0baf5c9e671f57b4&sxsrf=ADLYWIKD7YNYORJfISz3zx0_ksm18pWQMw%3A1733787278942&ei=jn5XZ-GaOeSQwbkPzb6XMA&ved=0ahUKEwjhmYL37JuKAxVkSDABHU3fBQYQ4dUDCA8&uact=5&oq="bitchu"+"Yasuhiro"+site%3Awww.militaria.co.za&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiLCJiaXRjaHUiICJZYXN1aGlybyIgc2l0ZTp3d3cubWlsaXRhcmlhLmNvLnphSNBtUOIBWN1mcAF4AJABAJgBngGgAesHqgEDOC40uAEDyAEA-AEB-AECmAIBoAIGwgIOEAAYgAQYsAMYhgMYigWYAwCIBgGQBgKSBwExoAfJCA&sclient=gws-wiz-serp

Very likely the smith Bitchu (no) kami Yasuhiro (who did use a kikumon). https://nihontoclub.com/smiths/YAS804

Jumyo Unfortunately the nakago (tang) has been partially cleaned.

@Brian, please move to the archives. Thank you, Ray

The date is unclear, but may be Enpo 7 (a lucky day in the eight month of 1679).

Heianjo Kuni ___ (suriage)

I believe this zodiac date of Showa hinoe-uma translates as 1966.

It's all down to personal taste. For me, a Tensho koshirae in the style seen in the Uesugi collection (including the Sanchomo koshirae).

Whether the mei is authentic or not, the nakago looks genuinely quite old. I would advise having an evaluation done (and madoake if necessary) to research further.

永延 period Eien gannen hachi gatsu __ (the eight month of the year 987)

Bizen no kuni Kanehira

I'm not sure if I understand your question with regards to treating a katana as a tachi. If you're talking about for example a 70cm o-suriage mumei Kamakura blade, it is a katana (in the eyes of the NBTHK). It was once a tachi and is now a katana, unless it has been placed into tachi koshirae and is being used as a tachi again. Sometimes blades are papered at juyo and above alongside their koshirae, and I believe there are edge cases where the NBTHK wouid call such a blade a tachi when paired at shinsa with its koshirae. However separate from the organization, dealers like to call osuriage mumei koto daito tachi because it helps with marketing their swords (improves sellability, by making the piece sound more desirable). In my opinion you should look at what is written on the papers and use that for the description.

Please share a photo of the papers.

The NBTHK does not generally categorize daito as tachi if they are osuriage mumei, even if they were made at a time before katana were produced. Ie. An o-suriage mumei katana from the Kamakura period would generally be papered as a katana. However, being signed tachi-mei or being ubu from that time period will steer towards categorization as a tachi.