Bruce Pennington Posted March 17, 2021 Report Posted March 17, 2021 Good Morning guys! Here's a fun one! John @PNSSHOGUN sent me a link to a Buyee sale of a blade with the mei and date badly removed, but it still has the hotstamp. The sale page describes the blade as a "1945 Koa Isshin by Mantetsu" HA! I'm assuming they concluded that because the first kanji of the stamp is "Koa". But we know, thanks to @mecox the stamp is of the Koa Token Sha, "a company founded by a group of retired servicemen to support the war effort. It was the parent company of the Seki Nihon To Tan Ren Jo of which Amahide (Hideyoshi san) was president. Amahide was also running Tan Ren Jo as a commercial operation. [from Malcom Cox]" I have only seen the stamp on a couple of blades, but they were both Amahide blades. Here's the ad: https://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/e504975921 What I'm curious about is the meaning of some writing placed by the stamp: I'll add some of the pics here for posterity, knowing the auction pages will someday go extinct: Quote
SteveM Posted March 17, 2021 Report Posted March 17, 2021 磨り上げ額縁銘 Suriage "gakubuchi" mei I think they mean "gakumei", which is a mei that is cut out (or cut off) of a sword and then re-inserted back into the sword once the sword is shortened. Its a technique for preserving the mei when a sword is shortened. In this case, this looks like a simple hotstamp. It isn't a mei that has been cut off and reinserted, so its not a "gakumei". My guess is that the owners removed the date and signature to reduce the risk of the sword being confiscated by the authorities. It seems to be a worry that is diminishing with each passing year - but it would have been a concern in the last few decades of the 90s. 1 Quote
Stephen Posted March 17, 2021 Report Posted March 17, 2021 Not Buyee calling just the yahoo seller. 1 Quote
Bruce Pennington Posted March 17, 2021 Author Report Posted March 17, 2021 1 hour ago, SteveM said: would have been a concern 30 minutes ago, Stephen said: Not Buyee calling just the yahoo seller. Thanks guys! I bet the seller knew better, but wrote it up that way to avoid any hangups from local laws. Appreciate the help! Quote
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