Translation help

[wfdharley]

Hi all, I was wondering if I could get help translating what I believe to be a signature on the tang of a sword my grandfather gave me and possibly tell me if it is legitimate or not? I’ve attached a photo. Thank you in advance.

 

Rick B

[rebcannonshooter]

Good morning, Your sword appears to be a WW2 stainless steel blade. It's signed Hira-Toshi Saku (made by  Hira-Toshi) with a Toyokawa Navy arsenal stamp. The "toshi" kanji seems to be a little more "squashed" (if I can use that word) than normal, so I'm not 100% sure of that kanji.  Maybe some of the other guys can correct me, or confirm that kanji.

   Tom M.

[ROKUJURO]

Rick,

to be more specific: It is certainly not a SAMURAI era blade, and the signature is made by a worker in a WWII factory, so certainly legitimate for that blade but not made by a traditional Japanese swordsmith. Anyhow, it might be interesting for a militaria collector if it is in good condition.

[Bruce Pennington]

This is interesting in that someone else has a numbered Toyokawa blade #462, only 5 numbers apart from this one, but signed by a different smith. What makes it more odd is that not all Toyokawa blades were numbered.

[Bruce Pennington]

Good morning, Your sword appears to be a WW2 stainless steel blade. It's signed Hira-Toshi Saku (made by  Hira-Toshi) with a Toyokawa Navy arsenal stamp. The "toshi" kanji seems to be a little more "squashed" (if I can use that word) than normal, so I'm not 100% sure of that kanji.  Maybe some of the other guys can correct me, or confirm that kanji.

   Tom M.

Thomas,

I found the same smith on another blade (no serial number), and the owner was told (who knows by whom) the smith name was "Tairo". Can we confirm one or the other?

 

[tbonesullivan]

平 can be read as Hira, Taira, or Hei. Most of the smith names in the lists have it as "Hira".  "Taira" is a clan name.

 

So, it would be 平 俊 作 .  

 

I've seen Toyokawa arsenal marked blades that have no signature, or that do. I also have seen them with or without the matching number for the Koshirae.  There isn't any hard and fast rule. In fact, the minority that I have handled had stamped western matching numbers. Most were painted on with Japanese numerals.

[Bruce Pennington]

Thanks David! And the numbers matching the koshirae numbers would explain it. *Sigh* much ado about nothing on the numbering then!

[uwe]

“平俊作”, quite possible!

 

Oh, David beats me...

[wfdharley]

Thank you so much everyone. Definitely has me interested in doing more research

[tbonesullivan]

Thanks David! And the numbers matching the koshirae numbers would explain it. *Sigh* much ado about nothing on the numbering then!

 

The matching numbers are interesting, and sometimes they mix together Japanese and Western numbers, just like with dates on other WWII Military Items.

 

Most of the pretty much "unissued" late war Kai Gunto i have seen have no signature, just the Anchor Stamp, and a painted number. They also tend to have black lacquered scabbards, not "shagreen", with oil cloth in the handle.