Kanji On Sendai Hinawajyuu Barrel

[uncledawei]

Recently purchased a Sendai hinawajyuu and having trouble reading the kanjii on the breech end of the barrel.  Others have tried to read the characters, but some are rusted and were difficult to read.  The general consensus is that the barrel was made in Sendai with the name of Matsubara kinosuke, 松原　喜之助 on the barrel.  Also the final character, saku, 作　is also readable. And I don't understand the 台　の　仙台　character.

 

Would appreciate if someone could confirm these readings, and perhaps translate the missing 2 characters.  Any recommendation on how to make the characters more visible would be appreciated.  

 

 

Uncle David - デヴィッド　叔父

 

 

[SteveM]

Hello David,

 

Sorry to say I can't help you any more than the three native speakers have already tried to help you, but it looks to me like your friend Mr. Kase is closest to the mark. 

 

I don't get 仙台 out of the two starting characters. 仙 is fine, but the next one looks nothing like 台 (or the old version 臺) so I have my doubts.If guns are inscribed similarly to swords (guns are a completely untouched universe for me), the kanji after 仙 all point to a location where the smith lived and worked. I little farther down you have the kanji 住, which is a common kanji found on swords indicating location. A typical construction is Province + City + personal name of the smith. Your gun has similar elements (which your Kase-san has figured out), but the rest are a bit too obscured for me.