Identification Assistance Respectfully Requested

[echelonff]

Hi Everyone,

I'm just a humble enthusiast here, and I have been attempting to help a friend identify this katana.  His grandfather was a Marine in WWII and sent this home to his father with a letter that he still has, stating that it was taken from a Japanese soldier during an island raid.  It is in Japanese Army Gunto NCO fittings, the blade is not numbered or stamped, and I have attached photos of the kanji on the nakago. 

 

I believe that I have been able to effectively translate one side: "A day in the 12th month of the 18th year of Showa", which would be December 1944. 

 

On the reverse side of the nakago is where I'm running into trouble.  I've been looking at the resources on japaneseswordindex.com, and have reviewed all of the indexes there over several hours of analysis, but I'm just not there yet. I think the 2nd kanji may be "Haru", but I haven't been able to identify the first (and I'm not extremely confident on the 2nd).  The "X" in the circle is something that I haven't been able to see elsewhere.

 

My friend thought that the katana was not notable, and when I saw that it was a gendaito I told him that I would try to figure this out so that he could find some peace on this.

 

Could you help me?  Thanks for your expertise. 

 

Nate

 

 

[Ken-Hawaii]

Welcome, Nate. Nice of you to help out your buddy.

[Brian]

Nate,
Remember that the 18th year of Showa = 1943, not '44.
 

[george trotter]

hi Nate,

I notice you have had no responses yet...well  firstly, good on you for trying before asking for help. Your translation of the date is correct except the 18th year of Showa is actually 1943, not 1944...they did not start their cycles at '0' but at '1'.

Second, the two kanji in the signature are quite stylised writing of KUNIHIRO. His family name is KATAOKA (not sure of personal name pronunciation : Chikashi?).

He began as a sword maker at Seki on 13 Nov. 1941.

 

About it being in a NCO mount...that is strange. From our experience it is more likely to be in the late war type of 'Rinji' (emergency) mounts.

Maybe a pic of the fittings too so we can check them out?

Regards,

 

Edit: Oh I see Brian has corrected the date year.

[Jacques]

I'm not easy with Sosho script but i think mei could read Munehiro

[Stephen]

http://www.japaneseswordindex.com/oshigata/kunihir2.jpg

[SteveM]

It is for sure Kunihiro (see the oshigata below). Just a very, very stylized way of writing 国. See the middle page of the second link.

Real name of 片岡愛, and like George I am unsure of how to pronounce the given name. Chikashi, Yasushi?

 

https://www.japaneseswordindex.com/oshigata/kunihir2.jpg

 

Kuni variations

https://moji.tekkai.com/zoom/%E5%9B%BD/page.html

 

Edit: Stephen beat me to it. 

[echelonff]

Welcome, Nate. Nice of you to help out your buddy.

 

Thanks, Ken!

[echelonff]

Nate,

Remember that the 18th year of Showa = 1943, not '44.

 

 

Much appreciated, Brian. 

[echelonff]

hi Nate,

I notice you have had no responses yet...well  firstly, good on you for trying before asking for help. Your translation of the date is correct except the 18th year of Showa is actually 1943, not 1944...they did not start their cycles at '0' but at '1'.

Second, the two kanji in the signature are quite stylised writing of KUNIHIRO. His family name is KATAOKA (not sure of personal name pronunciation : Chikashi?).

He began as a sword maker at Seki on 13 Nov. 1941.

 

About it being in a NCO mount...that is strange. From our experience it is more likely to be in the late war type of 'Rinji' (emergency) mounts.

Maybe a pic of the fittings too so we can check them out?

Regards,

 

Edit: Oh I see Brian has corrected the date year.

 

Thank you!  It's very kind of you to help me with this, and the least I could do was take a shot at it!  You are probably right about the emergency mounts, I recall the Tsuba being cast iron.  I will see if I can get some photos of it from him and post them here.