My family owns a Japanese sword that we never really thought about much because my grandfather had a habit of picking things up when he was in the Army. It wasn't until my father was working on our family tree that we realized the sword belonged to the brother of my great, great, grandfather who spent a large portion of his life in Japan. My father was more interested in the people than the items so he put the sword away. I saw the sword for the time in years and realized it was in much better shape than I remembered and that it might be possible to learn more about the sword itself. Googling led me here. I'm hoping to find out more about the time frame it's from, identifying marks and how it should be cared for so it doesn't deteriorate any further. Since my ancestor (Franklin Upton) was Canadian I'm also curious if there's anyway to tell if the sword was just something he bought, or if it might of been presented to him. According to our records Franklin was presented the Order of the Rising Sun, and spent time as part of the retinue to a Japanese prince who was visiting Canada. Thank you for your time.
