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[Mike Noel]

Gents

 

Can anybody translate the inscriptions on this tang please.

Kind Regards

Mike

[oli]

Gassan Sadayoshi i think..... would be nice to see more from the blade.

[Mike Noel]

Hi Oli

Thanks for the infoI have attached some photos of the blade

[uwe]

“田中敬哲應需” (Tanaka Hiroaki ouju = on request of Tanaka Hiroaki/ Hironori).

[Mike Noel]

Thanks Uwe

[uwe]

For the sake of completeness, the date is “万延元年十一月吉日” (on a lucky day 11th month first year Man’en = 1860). The smith, like oli pointed out, is “月山貞吉作之” (Gassan Sadayoshi kore o saku = Gassan Sadayoshi made this).

 

[rebcannonshooter]

Hi Guys,

I'm confused, (not unusual). When Mike posted the translation request I did not recognize the Nengo. I looked in all my "printed" reference books and couldn't find it. After Uwe translated it as "MAN'EN" I looked again. All of my books show different Kanji for "MAN'EN". When I Googled it, Google showed the same kanji as on the sword. Google is apparently correct, but  are all my reference books (Hawleys, Robinson Yumoto etc) wrong? What gives?

Thank, Tom

[Toryu2020]

万 is a simplified version of 萬, which is the older form. Some authors prefer the older form...

 

-t

[rebcannonshooter]

Thanks Thomas,

I couldn't imagine that ALL the reference books were wrong. Makes sense that it was an older form!

Tom M.