strange mei on new katana

[shibeni]

Hello again,

I just get new katana with wery strange small mei (one is 4mm) on lower part of nakago. Is it possible to find out what this mei means (??masa mitsu??), because on the other side are almost invisible tracks of maybe older or removed signature. Nakago looks old? I will post more info of the blade and pix of a nice activity.

 

 

Bojan

[drbvac]

You are right it is strange as it looks more like a hot stamp than a chiseled mei.

[Stephen]

agree with Dr. B looks like a stamp, think more photos are in order, maybe a light bone rubbing to bring out the stamp. blade does look to have some nice activity, interesting.

[dkirkpatrick]

Not that I would presume to know anything about stamps but am I the only one that thinks this stamp looks like KANEMITSU?

[drbvac]

I have a kanemitsu of mino tachi and I don't see any similarity and I know of no kanemitsu smiths who did or that I can surmise would use a stamp.

 

Could be - but IMHO not likely any smiths working in an era that the nakago seems to be from. I wonder if some other person or arsenal stamped the tang at a much later date?

[Darcy]

Looks like Tamitsu maybe? Dunno what it's implying.

[Mark]

I have a katana with a mei like that (maybe the same), i asked about it a while ago and was helped to see it was Shigenaga, there was a picture of the mei on R Stein's site, maybe someone can find the old thread........ anyone at Chicago can see the sword, it will be for sale, stop by my table

[Mark]

i found the old thread it was .................Help with Gendai "Stamped" Mei -- not sure how to link or reference it........ check out the pictures and see if you think it is the same

[Stephen]

the link to Rich S site,

http://home.earthlink.net/~ttstein/shigenag.jpg

 

remember it now but did not think it looked the same, maybe with some closer pix.

[Bugyotsuji]

I think I can see

Masamitsu 正光 or ? 正虎 Masatora?

[shibeni]

Hello to all,

I think that mr. Piers is right about mei stamp (Masamitsu). Is it possible that the sword is older then this stamp? As I mention before, on the other side of nakago are tracks of maybe older an longer signature- I can just see some notches. Any opinion about the age of the blade.

Blade is in good polish an has nice koshirae.

 

Sori: 66 cm,

Nakago:21 cm,

Hada: Itame,

Mihaba:3 cm,rain

Hada: Itame.

 

Bojan

[Guest reinhard]

In this case, a mei erased is not a good thing (why should one do this and leave an unimportant stamp?). Apart from the raw and uneven ha-line extension of the nakago and the strange file-marks on the sashi-omote, there is a hammered or otherwise changed area on the sashi-ura, starting from the mekugi-ana, close to the mune, and going down to the stamp (which was probably too deeply cut and too far down the nakago to be erased).

It doesn't really matter if the nakago looks old, for it was drastically changed and probably repatinated. In this particular case, it is the blade one should focus on.

 

reinhard

[Darcy]

For the record there seems to have been a sword polisher with this name, I am not sure when he was active but he polished a sword that I had (Juyo Naotsuna). He signed his name by burnishing it into the base of the hi in the nakago, after setting it up for this with hadori.

 

That was the one and only time I've heard of a sword polisher literally signing his name...

 

That is, I'm assuming that it was the polisher who did this, I don't know this for an absolute fact but it seemed like he was signing his work, and I'm only deducing his existence. The sword was very beautifully polished and I had also assumed that it was from around the time the sword went Juyo (in the 1960s).

 

It seems possible, though highly improbable, that this fellow might have put a little stamp in on his work.

 

Since we seem to be low on theories (apologies, I just quickly scanned the thread as I'm in Chicago now and waiting for foooood), I thought I would throw this one out there.

[shibeni]

May activity on the blade tell something more about the age of a blade?

 

Bojan

[drbvac]

Any chance that the little stamp, considering the depth and the fact the nakago was altered was put there by someone who re-tempered the blade? The stamp has to be placed on a heated tang I believe so maybe this person did the whole thing and removed the original mei to assuer there was no confusion -- unfortunaltely got more !

[shibeni]

Hello,

When I send saya of this sword to repair the lacquer, I find this hand written "mei?" under old lacquer. Is it possible to read this?

Thank you,

Bojan

[Nobody]

When I send saya of this sword to repair the lacquer, I find this hand written "mei?" under old lacquer. Is it possible to read this?

As a shot in the dark;

 

黒 (kuro) = black

[kusunokimasahige]

IMHO the stamp has indeed been put on while the metal was hot..

 

The rim of the kanji stamp does not look like it was done on cold steel.

 

If that was the case the rim would stand out more due to the difference in displacement of the metal. Just like you see in signatures on some blades.

 

KM

[IanB]

All, I have seen this type of stamp before, on a gunto, but so long ago I have no other recollections. Not a lot of help I know, but note that the 'instruction' to the lacquerer to use black lacquer is in pencil, not written with a brush so the saya must be post Edo period.

Ian bottomley

[Agudi]

Hi, can anyone help me read the following mei?

[Jacques D.]

Hi,

 

Surely i'm wrong but i think the mei reads (can't make out the first and second kanji)

 

X X Amachi Masatsune saku and dated from Showa ju roku nen (1941)

[Nobody]

Hi, can anyone help me read the following mei?

The first four characters are 以安来鋼 (Motte Yasuki-hagane), which mean “using Yasuki-steel”.

Jacques is correct about the other part except “Amachi”.

[shibeni]

Hi Agudi,

you posted question under my topic, use "New topc" button on main forum page...

 

Regards,

Bojan

[shan]

I believe there were a couple of brothers who worked in the WWII period who stamped this way and they were quite popular.

I will try to remember the names but one the elder brother was more highly regarded than the other and his swords are considered to be very well made.

sorry the info is incomplete but i will try to find where i saw the information,

reggards

shan

[Bruce Pennington]

On 5/1/2008 at 8:35 PM, Darcy said:

He signed his name by burnishing it into the base of the hi in the nakago, after setting it up for this with hadori.

Darcy, can you explain this some more for me?  Do you have photos of examples?  I feel as you do that this might be a polisher mark rather than a smith mei.