Thank you. I admit I could not compare the characters to listed kanji. I am surprised it is a mid 43 as, from what research I have found, the brass tsuba would have been earlier. Perhaps the materials shortages were not hitting that hard by that time. The hilt is fairly worn, so it likely saw hard use before the end of the war as, other than kids touching it, it was not used once it came to the US. I forgot to include these earlier, but here is the tsuba and hilt.