assistance with mei please

[b.hennick]

This wakizashi mei starts with Echizen ju (resident of Echizen Provence) on the left and ends with Saku Kore (made this). The rest is puzzling me. All assistance will be appreciated.

[Gunome]

Hello,

 

以南蛮鉄

motte nanban tetsu + something

[John A Stuart]

Maybe 鐵 tetsu. Kind of repeating himself, as 鐵 is the same as 鉄. ??? John

[george trotter]

Motte Namban Tetsu kitae saku kore (Namban tetsu o motte, kore o kitae saku) forged/made this using southern iron.

Is the mei one of the Yasutsugu den?

Hope this helps,

[John A Stuart]

That is sensible, but, does the kanji look like this 鍛 ? I guess it is supposed to be. John

[k morita]

Hi,

When mei is seen carefully,there is an unreadable kanji(in a red circle) betwen NANBAN and TETSU.

If this Kanji is 鉄(tetsu),why tetsu used twice.　

[b.hennick]

Thanks for all who contributed. I was stuck when I read the second tetsu character. I thought that the last two characters before saku kore should be a mei of the smith. It did not make sense to me and it still is a strange one to me. I have not photos of the hamon or the other side of the blade as yet.

[John A Stuart]

Morita san, that is what I wondered. Could it mean foreign steel 南蛮鉄 and iron 鐵 as two seperate ingredients? Strange. John

[b.hennick]

Please look at the other side of the tang

Most of the kanji have what look like check marks under them. Your assistance will be greatly appreciated.

[kunitaro]

播磨大掾藤原重高

 

Harima Daijo Fujiwara Shigetaka (Ni-dai/2nd)

[b.hennick]

Thank you Kunitaro san. The style of writing is a little strange to me. It does look like check makrks under each kanji.

[Gabriel L]

Looking at other examples of his work it appears that this dramatic "kink" in his main horizontal strokes (e.g. the tops of 藤 and 原, the cross bar of 大, etc.) is an idiosyncrasy of his. Though on this piece it is even more extreme than on the other few swords I found in 30 seconds' worth of googling.

[b.hennick]

Thanks! It does look like a check mark. Strange to see so many.