Help identifying kanji on mei of WW2 naval sword

[KenandCantrell]

Hello, I finally had the courage to disassemble the hilt and get photos of the mei. My intent is to keep the sword and display as a family heirloom and hoping someone can help identify the kanji of the smith. 

[Conway S]

Hello Ken,

 

The smith is Nagata Sukenori 永田祐則.

 

 

[mecox]

Ken, as noted sword is “Sukenori” (祐則), real name Nagata Eiichi (永田栄一), born Meiji 43 (1910) August 28, from Seki in Gifu.   Registered as a Seki swordsmith on Showa 16 (1941) September 12.   Blade also has Seki stamp.  He worked as guntō smith in Seki. Interesting your blade is in kaigunto Naval mounts.   Seacrh this site for guide in cleaning blade.

 

                      

[Bruce Pennington]

Ken,

Good job removing the tsuka.  Pretty easy, right?  Since you didn't show the other side of the nakago, I assume there was no date.

The larger Seki stamp was used by the quality control inspectors of the Seki Cutlery Manufacturers Association, a civilian trade group asked to weed out poorer quality blades from hurting the market's reputation.  We see the stamps on blades made in 1940 - 1944, but most of them were made in 1942.  So, you have a general idea of the age of your sword.

 

You can read up on the kaigunto on this site: Navy Officers Sword - Ohmura

Care and cleaning info: Japanese Sword Care - Japaneseswordindex.com

[KenandCantrell]

Thank you all for helping. I used a dremmel polish pad and some metal polish and found another character as well as a cleaner symbols. I will follow up on how to properly present the blade. It was used so there is knicks in the blade plus a bent tip. I also decided to glue the saya back together so more sanding/ filling/ repair to follow. As I get closer to displaying, I will share updated photos.