Any Help Would Be Appreciated

[Prewar70]

Looking at these two swords and curious about translation.  Thank you.

 

 

[John A Stuart]

備前住則光  Bizen ju Norimitsu. John

[John A Stuart]

Maybe, 備州長舩廉光 Bishu Osafune Yasumitsu.  John

[John A Stuart]

BTW, the Yasumitsu is dated during Meio period. John

[SteveM]

I think the bottom one is 備州長船勝光 Bishu Osafune Katsumitsu

The reverse side is is 明応二年八月日  Meiō 2 (1493) August.

The old kanji "應" is being used in place of 応.

 

Here is another signature of the same for comparison

http://www.touken-sato.com/event/katana/2014/05/W-katsumitsu-02.html

[John A Stuart]

Could be; certainly looks similar. Damned tough to read through that corrosion. John

[Prewar70]

So much to try and understand.  Thank you.  So are both of these swords late 1400s?  What is the equivalent English translation?  For these signatures, to the point to a specific smith, school, region, date, etc?  Thanks again.

[SteveM]

Hello James,

 

If you are getting into nihonto, I would suggest checking out some of the links in this site (especially under the "research" button). You can get a ton of good information from browsing around there. Also, its a good idea to invest in some reference books. There is a list of recommended reading in one of the links. These will help you get acquainted with some of the things you usually find on swords, and the terminology associated with it. Otherwise, we're just tossing you fish instead of teaching you how to fish for yourself. I'll give you a push to get you started. The first one is;

 

備前住則光

Bizen jū Norimitsu. Bizen is an old province name in Japan, and one of the most important swordmaking regions. 住 (jū) means reside/live and is often seen after location names. So basically it would translate as Norimitsu from Bizen or Norimitsu who resides in Bizen, if you want a literal translation

 

Typically signatures include location and the smith's name - and usually in that order. Depending on the era or the fashion of the time, the inscription may include more information or less information. So, this is the long way of saying, yes these inscriptions point to a specific region and smith (which usually makes the school obvious). The reverse side of the tang on the bottom sword has the date, which I've given in my post #5 above. The top one doesn't have a date inscribed on it, but you know the smith and the location, and if you do a bit of searching around on the internet you should be able to come up with a date for it based on the signature. Good Luck!