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Two Newly Acquired Swords I Need Help w/ Signatures


Bhdau1

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Hello, new member, long time lurker.  My name is Brent Day and I am co-owner of Antique & Modern Firearms in Lexington, Ky.  We frequently get some pretty interesting Japanese swords in from gun collections and veteran's families.  We recently got three swords from the extended family of a WW2 veteran of the Pacific theatre, two long swords and one short sword.  The short sword is not signed but appears to be the oldest with an almost black color to the tang, while the two longer swords are both signed.  I was hoping that someone here could maybe help me by translating the signatures.  This first sword is in standard Imperial Japanese Military fittings and with the handle off measures 34.25" from the tip of the blade to the back of the tang.  It measures 25 & 5/16" inches from the tip of the blade to the back edge of the blade cut where it reduces down to the tang.  Here are pictures of the signature.

 

resized samurai 1.jpg

resized samurai 1a.jpg

resized samurai 1b.jpg

resized samurai 1c.jpg

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The second sword is not in IJA fittings but similar and has a gloss black finished scabbard.  It measures 33.75" inches from the tip of the blade to the end of the tang.  It measures 25.75" inches from the tip of the blade to the back edge of the cut where the blade reduces down to the tang. Here are pictures of the signature under the handle.

 

resized samurai 2.jpg

resized samurai 2a.jpg

resized samurai 2b.jpg

resized samurai 2c.jpg

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14 hours ago, BANGBANGSAN said:

1.藤原義臣 作  Fujiwara Yoshimasa  Saku (Made)

Guy, over at a Wehrmacht-awards thread translated it this way:

 

Sword 1.

{ 昭 } 藤原義巨作
{sho} Fujiwara Yoshiomi Saku
Made by Fujiwara Yoshiomi; has "Sho" stamp.

From Markus Sesko's Swordsmiths of Japan:

  • YOSHIOMI (義臣), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Gifu – “Yoshiomi” (義臣), real name Takeyama Kazuo (武山数男), born April 3rd 1910, he was the younger brother of Yoshinao (義尚) and worked as guntō smith, ryōkō no retsu (Akihide)
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5 hours ago, Bruce Pennington said:

Guy, over at a Wehrmacht-awards thread translated it this way:

 

Sword 1.

{ 昭 } 藤原義巨作
{sho} Fujiwara Yoshiomi Saku
Made by Fujiwara Yoshiomi; has "Sho" stamp.

From Markus Sesko's Swordsmiths of Japan:

  • YOSHIOMI (義臣), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Gifu – “Yoshiomi” (義臣), real name Takeyama Kazuo (武山数男), born April 3rd 1910, he was the younger brother of Yoshinao (義尚) and worked as guntō smith, ryōkō no retsu (Akihide)

Must be a wrong typo, should be  instead of 巨。Guy is right,Japanese 義臣 should be YOSHIOMI,I was making a mistake to YOSHIMASA.

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