Inscription on blade not on tang.

[The Don]

I recently acquired this Katana in WW2 mounts; whilst I have seen katana with chiseled dragons on the blade on rare occasions I have never noticed one with what looks like sanskrit on the blade itself. It also has double chiselled lines on the other side , both near the hilt. I also cannot make out what the mark is between the chiseled lines. 

There is nothing on the tang.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Grey Doffin]

Hi Don,

That is, I believe, a sanskrit character called Bonji. On the other side is a ken with something else I can't see clearly enough to identify in the middle. The placement of the something else is odd; it may have been carved there to hide a blister or other ugly defect in the blade.

Grey

[Stephen]

3 minutes ago, Grey Doffin said:

hide a blister or other ugly defect in the blade.

Or a ding from a sword fight look at the chips in the ha

[The Don]

Yes this sword has definitely had use, besides the edge damage in the pic it also has 2 more smaller chips about 4-5 inches from the tip; now to look up Bonji 

 

So it has Suken one side and bonji the other and from the Muromachi period so 650 - 700 years old? If I am reading things correctly. 

But struggling to work out what this bonji says/ means.

 

 

[Grey Doffin]

Hi Don,

There is no way to know from your pictures how old the blade or the horimono are. If the hori were added to disguise a defect, the hori would be less old than the blade, something that could be true even if it wasn't added to disguise a defect (see ato-bori horimono).

Grey

[DoTanuki yokai]

If you want a better guess about the age you should post a picture of the complete blade without the habaki and everyhting else so we can see the sugata.

I think the "hole" in the Ken Horimono is just an old damage that was cleaned from rust. (This and everything else i could imagine is speculation)

From what i see now i would say this blade is not older then late muromachi.

[The Don]

More pics as requested

Blade width is a max of 27mm at the hilt narrowing down to 17mm 

Thickness is 5.5mm at the hilt narrowing down to 4mm 

The wavy hamon is very pronounced (Kakubari-gunome?) for 2/3 of the blade but fades and is difficult to see towards the Kissaki

The yokote is very very indistinct, maybe it doesn't really have one? 

Tang is on the short side and has no markings at all. 

There is a cut mark about 8 " from the tip about 6 small v nicks (only noticed when I ran my nail along the edge) and 2 shallow but longer areas of edge loss in this area  too.

If anyone want any further pics let me know.

 

 

 

 

[The Don]

And some more as I here as I thought I might exceed the limit

 

 

[Lareon]

Just a quick note, it's best not to put your sword on a concrete floor/ hard surface of you don't want to damage it or scratch it.

[antarabhava]

On 2/26/2022 at 4:07 AM, The Don said:

I recently acquired this Katana in WW2 mounts; whilst I have seen katana with chiseled dragons on the blade on rare occasions I have never noticed one with what looks like sanskrit on the blade itself. It also has double chiselled lines on the other side , both near the hilt. I also cannot make out what the mark is between the chiseled lines. 

There is nothing on the tang.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

 

 

 

Sanskrit is not a script but a language. This is supposed to be the syllable hūṃ written in Siddham script. It represents Buddha Mahāvairocana (Jp.: Dainichi Nyorai).

For a more detailed answer or more informations regarding these kinds of topics, feel free to contact me.

I am sorry if my English is a bit limited due to not being my first language.