Katana sword

[oregu]

Dear friends,

I appreciate your opinion very much about this Katana sword.

About signature of nakago?

About age of Katana?

Thank you very much,

Best Regards

[Marius]

Oregu,

 

please sign with your first or last name (tat is a rule here). If you want people here to help you, you might want to:

 

1. try to read the signature yourself with the help of this wonderful resource: http://www.jssus.org/nkp/kanji_for_mei.html - this will be appreciated not because people here need help but because it shows you are seriously interested (and it will be great fun for you)

2. take pictures of the whole sword (without handle and habaki), the hamon (if visible) and the hada (if visible) and post them

 

For nihonto terms (should they be unknown to you) go to this glossary: http://www.jssus.org/nkp/nihonto_glossary.html

[Gabriel L]

EDIT: ninja'd by Mariusz who gave the advice to try it yourself, I agree, it is a very good exercise. So I will add "spoiler" tags to my reply, just in case you want to attempt it.

 

Olegs,

 

"Katana" means sword, so no need to be redundant, just call it a katana.

 

 

Mei reads 平安城信吉作 (Heianjo Nobuyoshi saku) unless I've missed something (it's not a perfectly clear photo).

 

Heianjo is an old name for Kyoto. Nobuyoshi is the smith name. "Saku" = "made this."

 

There is at least one Nobuyoshi signing with Heianjo who worked in 1532-1555. The color of the patina on this nakago might be ok for that age, but it is very hard to tell from just one photo with no lighting context, and I am not an expert.

 

 

It does not seem like a very likely smith to gimei (fake signature), he is not famous, so odds are this is that smith. But please post photos of the entire blade, both sides, and ideally get some photos of the workmanship (hamon, hada, etc.). I cannot help with further attribution but we can at least assess condition etc.

 

Regards,

—G.