Help with attic find gunto signature

[PeterCollector]

Hello to all collectors,

 

I want to ask for little help with inscription on attic find sword Type 98 with leather covered scabbard. Sword was find on attic and owner put into auction, which I won   When sword arrived, it was in very bad condition, blade was rusty, all brass parts were green from patina and almost no details were visible. I try to take care about it, and here you can see result. But what I really can´t do is blade inscription translation. I find a seki stamp on one site of blade tang and there are one inscription on each side, I think one is name of the smit and one name of polisher? Very sad thing is that blade tang is damaged by rust, and not a whole inscription is visible  Even seki stamp is visible only under the microscope...

 

Please, can somebody help me with translation?

 

Thank you for your time and help.

 

Peter

 

 

[uwe]

“濃州 ? 清宜作” (Nōshū ? Kiyonobu Saku)!

The other side is the date, Peter.

[vajo]

Thats hard. These are the only strokes i find out.

 

[PeterCollector]

Hello Uwe,

 

thank you for your help, it is much appreciated! First I started to afraid, that the name of the smith can not be solved because of blade tang damage, but now I fell much better.

 

Uwe, please can you help me with dating sword - or how I can translate that inscription?

 

I collect edged weapons for about 25 years, but with this type of weapons I´m only starting, please can somebody advice me if I want to learn something more about this exact smith? 

 

vajo, I try to post better pics tommorow, but I don´t think it can be better  And grind the tang rust is not a good idea I think... Here is another photo shortly after I took apart sword. 

[kissakai]

That's a second war arsenal stamp for Seike arsental (not sure about spelling as it doesn't right

 

[mywei]

Noshu Seki ju Kiyonobu 濃（州関住）清宣  - characters in brackets obscured but most likely

 

Dated Showa 17

[Bazza]

In case PeterCollector is counting characters ...KIYONOBU SAKU  ...清宣作

 

BaZZa.

[PeterCollector]

kissakai, mywei, BaZZA: thank you friend for your help and interest! It is nice to see exact date of production, year 1942  

 

Best regards

 

Peter

 

 

[Bruce Pennington]

Just to clarify Grev's post - the stamp is the Seki stamp seen on blades made in the Seki prefecture.  The smiths of the Seki area made 70% of the blades of the war.