What do I have? Sword Wise

[captjack73]

Hi there i got this knife from a man who took it off of a Japanese solider in ww2. I am seeking informatiion about it.

Thanks

Dan

[Nobody]

Hi Dan,

 

Sorry but I think that there is something suspicious about the tanto.

 

1. The mei on the blade is ridiculous. The characters are 粟田田吉光, which might be a bad joke. The name is similar to 粟田口吉光 (Awataguchi Yoshimitsu) which is a BIG name.

2. A mei generally is not chiseled on a blade but on a tang, though there are exceptions.

3. The carving on the scabbard is upside-down.

4. The blade itself might be a broken tip of a katana or a genuine tanto.

[captjack73]

Hi there Thanks for the reply. How can I tell if this is original or a fantasy piece?

 

Thanks

Dan b

[Gabriel L]

If I up the gamma on my screen I can see more of the blade details, and I am pretty sure this blade is not genuine. If you retake the photos with different lighting - e.g., use stronger light (don't use camera flash), move the highlight up into the tip area, take some closeups, and finally aim the blade at a light source and take a photo looking down the surface - I'll bet that we could be certain of its inauthenticity.

 

To add to Koichi's comments, there is no hint of a genuine hamon, I see what may be some very coarse suggestions of an ayasugi-type hada (resembling many Chinese fakes), the groove(s) are horribly cut, the shape is awkward, etc... just giving some reasons why it looks very fake to me, not trying to be harsh here.

 

Anyway, try taking some more photos. You might try putting the blade next to a window (indoors) in late afternoon on a sunny day, that will probably illuminate the surface details well.

 

Cheers,

GLL

[Darcy]

Well someone knew enough to fake Yoshimitsu, but didn't know enough that the guchi character chosen was the wrong one... guchi can be a box, can it be the "da" character as well? Anyway basically it looks like someone signed something as Elvis Presslie.