I need help translating this. I know very little about the sword

[Tareeir]

Hi All,

 

I have a sword that I need help translating and possibly some history of the sword. I know very little about swords but would love to learn more! 

[Nicholas]

Emura saku https://www.Japanese...dindex.com/emura.htm

[Tareeir]

So after reading a whole lot @Nicholas Im not really sure what the takeaway is from the sword in terms of value. Were they mass produced? Some literature says he struck each one of them himself, other pieces state it was the prison workers. Some literature says they have a certain rating, but after researching the rating system it was written to where you had to know a whole lot about the systems in order to understand it. I guess my question is, are these good swords according to traditional Japanese sword making standards? It states that the sword is Bizen, but even the importance of that eludes me. I am sorry to bother you with all of this, but I truly want to learn as much about this sword as possible. I find it very ignorant of me to own a piece of history and be so unaware of how it came about. Any explanations of this is sword would be deeply appreciated. 

[Nicholas]

“It is known that many Emura signed blades were in fact made by his students, inmates at the Okayama Prison, and not by the master smith himself. Due to the variation in quality of Emura signed blades, each blade must be judged on its own merits and not simply on its mei.”
      Bizen is the tradition of swordsmithing this particular smith worked in. There are swords that he made himself from start to finish and then there are swords the inmates made and Emura did the final hardening process on. It all comes down to the quality of the particular blade in question. 
      I think you’ll find out more information by posting the sword in the military section of this forum. There are far more knowledgeable people on the subject there.

 
Regards,

Nick

[Bruce Pennington]

Hi Edward!

 "Bizen" reference in the article is talking about the style in which the blade was made.  WWII smiths often chose a "school" or era style of blade shape/design to make a blade.  The article says Emura used the Bizen style.

 

Emura blades are popular because he was a self-taught smith, and was a prison warden.  Very unique character!  And many of his blades are quite nice.  I don't follow thier market price, though, and cannot speak of market value.

 

Your WWII fittings are commonly called "Type 3", but they were a wartime contingency model and variant built off of the Type 98 Emperor order.  So many of us have started calling it the Contingency model, or Rinji seishiki (Japanese), or just Rinji model.  You can read about them

 

here: Unveiling the Rinji-seishiki 1940

and: Rebutting the Type 3 Term