can anyone tell me about this?

[AMIE]

Help reading mei on my Nihonto tang, I got this long long ago from my dad, and have never been able to find out much about it. 

[ROKUJURO]

HI Amie,

looks like a nice blade!

Signatures are chiseled vertically (tip-upwards) and images should be oriented accordingly so they can be read easily. 

Try again with better photos on a dark background, light from the side, shown as cut-out, so very little background is to be seen. HABAKI should be removed.

The MEKUGI (peg) you use is not original. It should be a bamboo one, not metal.

[John C]

Amie:

The folks who do the translations will be along shortly I'm sure, but to get you started ??? [Inaba??] kuni ju Fujiwara Kanemitsu?? I'm not sure of the first part. Fujiwara would be a title and not a first name, BTW.

 

John C.

[Conway S]

Hi Amie, 

 

Your sword is signed Inaba no Kuni Ju Fujiwara Kanesaki. Here’s a recent thread where some good information was provided on this line of Swordsmiths:

 

Conway

 

[AMIE]

Thank you for the replys! that peg is some kind of wood material. it is hard to get decent clear pictures of this, i tried to do a rub also and it didnt turn out so good, i am still trying, i took some more with powder and also messing with the light trying to get it clear. here are some more with it turned, more readable. i have also taken some close up too and can see the chissel work to this, i can post more to help with this. I am not cleaning it, leaving it as un touched as possible while trying to get it visible. 

I’ve taken new pictures of the tang with the inscription shown vertically. Some helpful eyes suggest it reads:

備前国住藤原康光 (Bizen Kuni Ju Fujiwara Yasukimitsu)
or
肥前国住藤原康光 (Hizen Kuni Ju Fujiwara Yasukimitsu)

Translation: “Yasukimitsu of the Fujiwara family, residing in Bizen [or Hizen] Province.”

The bottom two characters are clearly 康光 (Yasukimitsu). The middle looks like 藤原 (Fujiwara). The province at the top seems to be either 備前 (Bizen) or 肥前 (Hizen) — both famous smithing areas.

Can anyone confirm which province is correct, and which generation of Yasukimitsu this mei would line up with?

Amie 

[nulldevice]

As was suggested earlier it reads 因幡國住藤原兼先 - Inaba no Kuni ju Fujiwara Kanesaki

 

The link to another thread posted above your post has a lot more context on this smith and their working period including many genealogy charts and the entire lineage of smiths who signed this way. 

[Scogg]

There is an active nihonto club in your state of Indiana. If you want to get some eyes on your sword for more opinions, they would be great people to contact.

@ChrisW
https://indianatokenkai.wixsite.com/indiana-token-kai

Nice looking blade, congrats; and welcome to the forum!

-Sam

[ChrisW]

I was out of the house for today. I'll go ahead and reach out!

[AMIE]

Thank you all for the help and response! I have been away for a bit, but when i get back home and settled in I plan to do some more work on finding out about this. 

[Michaelr]

Very nice blade and congratulations on being its caretaker. Welcome and thank you for sharing. Take good care of your blade and enjoy 

  MikeR