Special Order Mei Translation

[Mark S.]

Trying to decipher a ‘special order’ mei and having a little trouble working it out:

 
1) Not sure of first character.  

2) I have not come across “Kasa” in a mei before, so I provided the formal and less formal versions of the kanji that I could find

3) The second half of the name of the person who ordered it. Taken individually the kanji combine to Hayahito.  But I am also led to believe it could be Hayato?

4) Correct version for last two characters in reference to a sword made for someone.

 

Thank you all

 

[SteveM]

為 = tame (for)

[Mark S.]

Thank you (as always) Steve.  I have seen the last two characters referred to as “o tsuruku” and “tsuruku kore”.  Based on the context of “made for”, are either of those two correct, or would they read as something else?

[SteveM]

Kore wo tsukuru, in the weird syntax of kanbun. 

 

So overall it would be 

 

Kasahara Hayato no tame, kore wo tsukuru.*

 

But not many people are too fussed with reading kanbun exactly as it was meant to be read, so you'd be just as likely to find this transliterated as "Tame Kasahara Hayato, tsukuru kore" - in other words a straight one-for-one reading of the kanji as written on the nakago.  Its because kanbun is so counter-intuitive to the word order that is inscribed on the sword, that people (dealers, hobbyists) just instead give one-for-one pronunciations of the kanji as written on the sword, and the meaning is still understood. 

 

* Could also be Kasawara. 

 

[Mark S.]

Steve,

I really appreciate your time to put this into the proper context for me.  You are always extremely generous with your time and knowledge.

Mark