Can anyone ID this sword?

[FrankF]

Hi all!

 

I have pictures of the tang inscriptions; I'll take some of the blade and sheath ASAP.

 

 

[ROKUJURO]

Frank,

the signature is chiseled and read vertically, tip-upwards, so I broke my neck for you to read KUNISHIGE.

I cannot read the first KANJI of the province. 

It does not look like a typical WWII blade, but to say more, we would need god photos of the naked blade.

Have a look at your PMs.

[BANGBANGSAN]

城州 住 國重   Joshu Ju Kunishige

[ROKUJURO]

Trystan, 

of course KUNISHIGE! I read it and I knew it, and then I wrote it wrongly....

[FrankF]

Sorry guys, I'm new  I will take better pics right now and post them.

[FrankF]

I can upload more pics to another post if needed. Are these better? Some oddities I noticed: there are two pin holes in the tang but only one on the hilt, there are two fullers on the right side of the blade and none on the left, the securing pin looks like bamboo, it is broken and seems old/corroded a bit. There were two rings on either side of the pin, on is intact and the other only has a small piece. I am trying to determine the material, it looks like they might be ivory. Any thoughts, guys?

[FrankF]

[ROKUJURO]

Frank,

have a look into your PMs.

[Bruce Pennington]

2 hours ago, FrankF said:

I noticed: there are two pin holes in the tang but only one on the hilt, there are two fullers on the right side of the blade and none on the left, the securing pin looks like bamboo, it is broken and seems old/corroded a bit. There were two rings on either side of the pin, on is intact and the other only has a small piece. I am trying to determine the material, it looks like they might be ivory. Any thoughts, guys?

Frank,

Your sword is in what is called "shirasaya" or resting case/fittings.  The intact white rings are there for looks mostly, and would look like this one:

 

The peg, or mekugi, might be bamboo that's been lacquered.  Sometimes they are made of horn.  You can replace the mekugi by cutting the end off a chopstick to fit.  All standard mekugi are made of bamboo, but upgraded, more expensive mekugi can be made of other things.

[FrankF]

Ah yes, Bruce, I believe you are right and it is lacquered bamboo.

[FrankF]

3 hours ago, ROKUJURO said:

Frank,

have a look into your PMs.

I did, Jean, thank you! Do you need better pics to ID it?

[FrankF]

6 hours ago, ROKUJURO said:

Frank,

have a look into your PMs.

Is anyone able to read the writing?

[Kantaro]

22 minutes ago, FrankF said:

Is anyone able to read the writing?

 

Hi Frank,

 

Like Trystan and Jean said; on the tang of you sword seems to be written 城州 住 國重  which means Joshu Ju Kunishige.

 

He is the maker (smith) of your sword. (Maybe somebody knows some more about him here.)

 

That is what I understand from the above. 

 

Kind regards

 

 

 

 

[Bugyotsuji]

珎州 (住)

To me this looks like (living in) Chin-Shu, wherever that is.

[Bruce Pennington]

Maybe:

 

Frank, was the blade chromed?  The nakago (tang) looks like it was coated with something.

[Scogg]

@FrankF, Thanks for sharing your sword with us. 

I could be mistaken, but your sword does not appear to be wartime to me, and may be older. 

I will move this to the Nihonto section to get more eyes on it. 
We can always move it again if necessary.
Best,
-Sam

[FrankF]

4 hours ago, Scogg said:

@FrankF, Thanks for sharing your sword with us. 

I could be mistaken, but your sword does not appear to be wartime to me, and may be older. 

I will move this to the Nihonto section to get more eyes on it. 
We can always move it again if necessary.
Best,
-Sam

Thank you, Sam! Just tell me what you need me to do. I was hoping someone would be able to read the inscription and figure out where and when it is from.

[Scogg]

The inscription reads: 城州 住 國重

 

Which translates to: Joshu Ju Kunishige

 

Which basically means: Kunishige made this in Joshu (or maybe in Chikuzen. Or perhaps in Chin-shu wherever that is). 
 

If my interpretation of the above is at all incorrect, I’m sure someone will correct me; and for Franks sake I encourage anyone to do so. 

You might think this would be enough for some detailed info, but unfortunately, nothing in Nihonto is that simple. There were many swordsmiths who signed “Kunishige” over the centuries, and unfortunately your blade does not appear to be dated (if it were dated, there would likely be an inscription on the other side of the tang). 

All hope is not lost though… Your sword looks interesting to me. We might be able to help narrow down a date range, but for that we’d need a lot of good photos. Primarily of the entire blade profile without fittings and the tip, both sides, and also both sides of the nakago up close. See my little photo guide below.

 

All that said, even with perfect pictures, judging swords via photos is far from ideal. To get a really good idea of what you have, we always recommend getting it into the hands of a respected expert or togishi. 

-Sam 
 

 

[Jussi Ekholm]

I feel the 珎州 that Piers posted would seem most resembling the last picture, however I have never seen that before, so my guess might be on 筑州住国重 (Chikushū jū Kunishige). In my personal feeling there seems to be different feeling between the first 2 and lower 3 kanji.

 

Your sword seems to have very unusual blade construction as one side seems to be flat (hira) and another side ridged (shinogi), at least that is what I am seeing from the pictures.

[Nobody]

城州住国重 – Kunishige living in Joshu

 

The first two kanji must be 城州 (Joshu).

城州 (Joshu) is another name of 山城國 (Yamashiro province).

The first kanji on the tang may not look like 城, but it must be a variation of 城 character.

 

Ref. 「城」（U+57CE） | 日本古典籍くずし字データセット

 

[Rivkin]

By default I would consider this late Muromachi, but what it really needs much better and more numerous images.

[Bugyotsuji]

Is there no possibility that it is gimei, with one deliberately misleading kanji?

[FrankF]

WOW! Thank you everyone, this is a great help so far! I will take a bunch of pics and post them as soon as I can. It's hard to tell if it is chromed, I do not want to clean or alter it. Maybe with the pics someone else can tell. The double fullers on one side has me completely baffled; I have never seen a sword with fullers only on one side. I did remove the collar and the "chrome" underneath is pretty much intact; the "corrosion" starts exactly where the hilt was. Forgive my terminology :). Anyways, there is also the fact that it has two holes in the hilt for oyatsubu"?" but only one in the hilt itself.

If someone was going to create a forgery, I would expect they would be consistent, such as fullers on both sides and only one oyatsubu hole. Is there anyone near New Hampshire USA that I could take it to to have a look at it? Again, thank you very much all, I wasn't expecting such an enthusiastic response and it says a lot about how cool the group is!

 

Frank

[Bruce Pennington]

Frank,

I'm not a nihonto guy, but there are many blades with 1 fuller on one side and 2 on the other.  It's a nice style, if you ask me.

 

Also, the guys will no doubt want to know some measurements like:

[2devnul]

Is that Shinogi?

 

You guys really think this is Nihonto? 

 

This is so weird ...

 

[Matsunoki]

?kata Kiri ha zukuri?

ie Shinogi zukuri one side, Kiri ha zukuri the other. 
Not unheard of.

[Scogg]

I think it's Nihonto; in my opinion. 

I've never seen a fake with such an unusual, yet clearly intentionally done blade geometry.
Everything else looks good, and I'd really like to see the other side of the nakago and more photos.

Very strange no doubt... My non expert opinion would be some kind of shinto or shinshinto oddity. 
Extra emphasis on the non-expert part...
-Sam