HUGE mune inscription, and mei, Please!

[Bruce Pennington]

Thanks to @Okan for bringing this to my attention.  Can't say I've ever seen this flower, which in other locations, often represents the holder is on Imperial household staff.

 

But looking for translation of the mei and quite large mune inscription.

 

Thanks guys!

[Mark S.]

Last character in mei is mitsu.  Hard to read character above but I’m going with Kane.  Will have to work harder on the rest.

[Toryu2020]

Thats a neat one -

Bishu Sakai? ju Kanemitsu

2603 years from the founding of the nation - made this for certain victory in the Great East Asian War? The last is something sword, so maybe auspicious? can't see but I am sure someone with better eyes will...

cool.

-tch

[Nobody]

尾州浅井住兼光 – Bishu (Owari) Azai ju Kanemitsu

皇紀二千六百三年大東亜戦必勝祈願刀 – 2603 Imperial year (1943), a prayer sword for victory in the Greater East Asian War

[ChrisW]

A wonderful find Bruce!

[Bruce Pennington]

6 hours ago, ChrisW said:

A wonderful find Bruce!

Thanks go to Okan, he found it, but I know what you mean!

 

Looking the kiri (Paulownia flower) in Fuller's book, he said:

"Originally used by the Imperial Family but given to senior officers to denote their high rank.  Found on naval kyu-gunto and parade sabres of Flag Officer (Admiral) rank, Diplomatic swords of Chokunin grade (appointment personally approved by the Emperor) plus the swords and dirks of Senior Railway Officials, the Imperial Household and Government-General of Korea"

 

I don't know if that is the significance of this kiri, or if the flower held other significance for the Japanese aside from this.

[Mark S.]

I don’t think I ever would have got the ‘Bishu’ characters.  The ‘shu’ kanji would have definitely stumped me… 

[Bruno]

Bruce, is there a way to get better photos of the blade, hamon etc?

[Bruce Pennington]

@Okan - any chance of gettting a link to the original sale pages?

[Okan]

@Bruce Pennington - No sorry Bruce, I've checked but the link is expired..I'm uploading 4 more that I had. How did I miss this blade... 

[uwe]

“八幡大菩薩” (Hachiman Daibosatsu). Interesting blade, indeed!

[Bruce Pennington]

1 hour ago, uwe said:

“八幡大菩薩” (Hachiman Daibosatsu). Interesting blade, indeed!

Thanks Uwe!  Google searched:

"Hachiman is commonly viewed as a Japanese god of war but he’s mostly worshipped as a patron kami of warriors and archery, and not of war itself. The archer kami was initially worshipped near-exclusively by warriors and samurai but his popularity eventually extended to all people in Japan and now he’s also viewed as the patron kami of agriculture and fishing as well."

[Ken-Hawaii]

I was mostly curious how anything could be huge on a mune!

[Bugyotsuji]

Ken, I think he meant huge in the sense of LONG. 

[Bruce Pennington]

HUGE I'm tellin' ya!!!  Ha!

[Toryu2020]

I think HUGE is a relative term and we all need a better reference in our minds eye...