ZZr1100 Posted May 3, 2015 Report Posted May 3, 2015 Gday, just wondering if anybody can translate some dates and Mei for me and identify some swords. I was up till 3am last night trolling through forums and Kanji characters and can only recognise a few numbers, and except for the "6", I'm not even confident on them. Either this guy had bad "hand writting", I have no imagination, or the authenticity is suspect. These were amongst a collection of swords that my uncle had and now he's passed, my aunty is trying to decide what to do with them...I'm hoping they're not worth much so I can hang them in the garage above where I park my Suzuki GSX1100 "Katana" (not seriously though:) The first sword I'm guessing is a "Shin-Gunto" or at least wearing the furniture of one....Ok...apparently the photos are BIG(sorry) I'll leave the character pics big and try to reduce the other ones in size. I'll put this to start then add more in replys Quote
ZZr1100 Posted May 3, 2015 Author Report Posted May 3, 2015 OK. I'm back with much more reasonably size pictures...maybe a bit TOO reasonably sized. So obviously the blade is not in very good condition...or maybe it IS in good condition considering it's treatmeant(It has some obvious scratch marks from "cleaning")...so I can't make out the grain, but it definately has "hamon", which you can just see on the lower portion of the blade...under all the scratches:( Although it's probably fine, I'm not keen to take the cloth out of it's bag, but I will if needed to translate. Quote
Jim P Posted May 3, 2015 Report Posted May 3, 2015 Hi YZed426, The sword is (WWII era). It looks a like oil temper (Showato) with a showa stamp its non-traditionally made. You said (I'm hoping its not worth much) your hope has been fulfilled Have a look at ebay for a idea of prices the surrender tag still is attached and it has a sword tassel, that helps :)one of the other guys will give you a Translation of the mei. Also can you give us a name to call you besides YZed426 Quote
ZZr1100 Posted May 3, 2015 Author Report Posted May 3, 2015 Hey, thanks guys. Wasn't expecting much of it from what I'd seen so far. I had put my name on the last post when I"d noticed the rule, but the post was deleted(because it wasnt meant to be there:) I have two other swords, one is a stainless steel Kai-Gunto style but only stamped with a 788 on all components, so not sure it's even ww2. The other has no discernable characters on the tang. I'm working on posting it on another thread. Thanks again for the help. Knowing what the characters actually say will help me with future translation...the more I look into this, the more I want to get involved:/ Matt Quote
george trotter Posted May 4, 2015 Report Posted May 4, 2015 Hi Matt, the sword is dated KIGEN 2 thousand 6 hundred and 1 year (1941), so it is definitely a WWII showa gunto by Kaneuji. Regards, Quote
ZZr1100 Posted May 4, 2015 Author Report Posted May 4, 2015 Thanks for that Klaus, the mei is definately the same. Having trouble with the date though. I know mine should say Showa at the top, but using all my imagination, I cant see many similarities between mine and the picture Klaus provided in the top 2 characters....or nakago on the net. Also, looking further, the "Nen" is the very last character, which I have only found on examples where only the period and years are recorded. I know the sword, being what it is, isn't worth TOO much scrutiny, but I would like to confirm it as what it appears to be and be able to tell some story about it... Matt Quote
cisco-san Posted May 4, 2015 Report Posted May 4, 2015 Hi Matt, the sword is dated KIGEN 2 thousand 6 hundred and 1 year (1941), so it is definitely a WWII showa gunto by Kaneuji. Regards, :glee: Quote
ZZr1100 Posted May 5, 2015 Author Report Posted May 5, 2015 Thanks George. I didnt see your response before I posted mine. Can't believe I couldn't work that out. I was too focused on the standard dating system to see if there was any other. Thomas... "BUT nice same saya"? I'm happy with the whole thing....at least it might now be worth what my uncle paid for it 15 years ago:/ Klaus...I missed what was funny in the comment, but I'm sure I'll work it out...although with my apparent problem solving skills, maybe not:) Quote
David McDonald Posted May 5, 2015 Report Posted May 5, 2015 Der Matt To follow up what george has said 紀元 - Kigen (the foundation of the empire in 660 bc 二ni - 2 千sen - thousand 六roku - 6 百hyaku - hundred 一ichi - 1 年nen - year I hope that helps david Hi Matt, the sword is dated KIGEN 2 thousand 6 hundred and 1 year (1941), so it is definitely a WWII showa gunto by Kaneuji. Regards, Quote
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