george trotter

Dear C. Ascher II, sorry, every time I try to upload the scan (tif) of the mei, it says the file is invalid. The two characters are the most common of SHIGE and KUNI - like all the NANKI Shigekuni's in Hawley. George T.

Oops... I misread the mei, It was done correctly for you Gan Nen, hachi gatsu beggining year, eighth month. My mistake sorry:-( George T.

Hi hermes, I came in late , so please disregard if this is already pointed out - but the character in the date given to you as 8 (ie 8th month) is actually Gan, meaning first, beginning month. So your date is actually 1st month of.... George Trotter

Hi all, I have been collecting, and interested in, Japanese swords for 40 years and I am particularly interested in Gendaito and good Gunto. I picked up a gendaito/gunto yesterday and the maker is not in any book or site - I wonder if anyone out there has seen him before? Two character signature SHIGEKUNI - this is the same mei as all those Nanki Shigekuni smiths in Hawley. this is a good handmade blade - NOT Seki gunto. It has kengyo tang and kessho filemarks. Type 94 gunto mounts and silver wrapped habaki and mon on handle. Blade is wide suguba of ko-midare with long ko-maru tip and tight itame. He is too good to be an unknown smith - but I am surprised he is not listed - maybe Shigekuni is the alternative name used by a smith in certain circumstances? Hope someone can help, George Trotter.