Mei translation for the ww2 blade.

[Oliver J]

Hello friends collectors,

 

Please, help me for the full kanjis translation on the nakago.

 

Look pictures!

 

I wait your messages...

 

Thank you very much.

 

Best regards,

Oliver

[Geraint]

Have a look at this thread, may help you out. viewtopic.php?f=50&t=13926

[chrisf]

Just like the number 10 bus,if you wait long enough......LOL

 

Oliver,hello what you have is indeed a Takayama-to that I was enquiring about in the thread that Geraint suggested,there's some good info tho' a bit confusing with suggestion that they were made at Takayama prison.I've not seen evidence to say without doubt that the smiths that made these blades did so,they appear to be Seki smiths and I think these were special order swords made to the design of Takayama Masayoshi (I incorrectly called him Masahiro...apologies for error).

They appear to have in common a short thickened kissaki and extra long nakago and are signed by both swordsmith and polisher.

Your sword reads; RH column;kin saku takayama to tosho ishihara masanao = respectfully made Takayama sword swordsmith Ishihara Masanao

LH column; togishi konuma jotaro = polisher Konuma Jotaro,this may not be correct I have shamelessly pinched it from the oshigata in Ron's book 'A Guide to Showa Swordsmiths' oshigata 52.

Are you able to tell us something about the blade and if it appears to be a traditionally forged sword or not?

[chrisf]

This is an oshigata of your swordsmith from Dr Richard Stein's superb resource on Japanese swords and I hope I'm not offending by showing it here.