Help Identifying a swordsmith

[Michael5689]

I recently bought a sword i thought was authentic and removed the handle to see if there was a signature on the Tang, there is a signature but i'm completely illiterate in Japanese, so if anyone here knows the langauge could tell me what it said I would be very greatful

 

Pictures

 

Best of characters on Tang: http://www.mypicshare.com/xdwefberpic.html

Whole Tang : http://www.mypicshare.com/jvsmpoknpic.html

Entire Sword : http://www.mypicshare.com/zruinxwspic.html

 

Michael Davidson

[Brian]

Michael,

 

Nice graduation gift

It is a WW2 shin gunto, signed Emura saku. If this is not gimei (false signature) then it is a good name, and a good find.

Your pics are upside down, so I have uloaded one the right way up. I can't tell if the signature is real or not, but it does have some similarities to some of the known mei examples...but there are some differences.

Check out the page here:

http://www.geocities.com/alchemyst/emura.htm

 

Brian

[Stephen]

to me like Nagamitsu Emura signed many ways and with some students doing the same...looks good to me.

[Brian]

On looking at it again...something struck me as odd.

Isn't this signed fairly low down on the nakago? I could be imagining it, but it does seem a bit odd for mei placement and the characters do seem spaced a bit far apart? Correct me if I am wrong...

 

Brian

[Stephen]

no Milt not Lo Mein...are not that uncommon, here's one close to what's posted

http://home.earthlink.net/~ttstein/emura2.jpg

[Michael5689]

THanks for the information guys, really appreciate it. I know this is a terribly vain question, but what is a sword like this worth? Also thanks for the link on the guy who made it, was a interesting read :D

 

Michael Davidson

[Brian]

Michael,

 

Values are always a difficult one. Too much to factor in to give an accurate estimate. We would need to see more pics of the blade condition, decide if it is an Emura or one of his students, and judge what the market is currently doing. Then online values are different to those in shops, and to those on real auctions.

Best bet is to google the maker and see what other Emura swords are doing out there. I know there are quite a few that are for sale online and elsewhere. Value can be anything from $3000 up to maybe $6000, but that is of course just an estimate.

 

Brian