How many characters is this? 8? 10?

[tbonesullivan]

This is from a Seki Arsenal stamped Shin-gunto, and the style eludes me. I can't tell whether it's 8 characters, 9, or 10.   Since it's from seki I'm assuming the first two are 濃 州 (NO SHU), but it looks like another character is before the 住 (JU) character.  This character almost seems to extend down on the right past the Ju. It isn't 国 (KUNI) is it?  After that, I can't tell how many more characters there are, except that the last character  would probably be 作 (SAKU)

[Stephen]

Noshu seki ju ? ? Masahiro

found it

when in doubt always check the oshigata base

 

http://www.japaneseswordindex.com/oshigata/masahir4.jpg

[Nobody]

濃州関住服部正廣作 - Noshu Seki ju Hattori Masahiro saku

[Stephen]

Lol

[tbonesullivan]

I had considered that the third Character might be SEKI based on the location, but man that looks different than the expected markings.  That really long right side on the SEKI mark, that really is characteristic though. I should spend more time in the Showa Oshigata list.

 

Usually I manage to get one character out of the name, and go from there, but this one, I'm just not used to reading those kinds of chiseled markings.  

[Stephen]

Hang with it gets better over time.