Old Japanese sword from ww2?

[Ljm]

I have a old sword with some Japanese writing on it? I cant read that at all and have tried digging up what i can and think there is a showa stamp on it? also it may have been made in seki city by someone named fujiwara kanefusa? i have no idea and it could be made by a very respected sword crafter or just smth mass produced during the war. idk and would love some help identifying this piece.

[John C]

Noshu ju Ishihara Yoshisada. Looks like a Gifu stamp, so not mass produced but not traditional. We call it a showato.

 

John C.

[Bruce Pennington]

John, you're amazing!  You've learned to read their cursive?!  Cool.

 

The photo is too blurry at top, but the stamp will be the Showa stamp, rather than Gifu.  Blades inspected by the civil Seki Cutlery Manufacturers Association were all (almost all) signed katana mei, like this one.  Blades with the arsenal stamps, including Gifu in sakura, were all signed tachin mei.

 

SHOWA	KATANA MEI	TACHI MEI
1935	1
1937	1
1939	4
1940	21	1
1941	21
1942	1
ND	64	1
SEKI Large
1940	4
1941	7
1942	37
1943	19
1944	6
ND	109	1
SEKI small
1943		1
1944	1 Star	18 (8 Star)
1945		10 (2 Star)
ND		1
NA
1941		1
1942		8 (1 Star)
1943		48 (2 Star)
1944		15
1945		1
ND		3
FUKU		1
GIFU
1944		1
1945		18
ND		1
SAKA
1943		2
1944		5
ND		7
Ko
1935		1
1942		3 (1 Star)
1944		1 (1 Star)
ND	2	1
YAMA
1943		4 (1 Star)
1944		1

[Bruce Pennington]

@Ljm - Welcome!  Newcomers often don't notice the NMB rule for using first names, so please go to your profile and tell us what "L" stands for, unless you actually go by "L", ha!  We like to talk to real people. 

 

I have 19 Yoshisada blades on file and most of them are stamped with Showa or large Seki stamps.  These blades tend to be very nice quality, but something in their making disqualifies them as "traditionally made."  Yoshisada did become RJT qualified, but I only have one blade from him with the star stamp indicating it was made for the RJT program and therefore traditionally made.

 

Edit: Thanks for the name, Liam!

 

@SteveM @Ray Singer or others - could we get a full translation?  There are a couple Yoshisada listed in Sesko's list and I'd like to pin one of them down for my records.

[John C]

59 minutes ago, Bruce Pennington said:

You've learned to read their cursive?

Nope. I have the intellegence of a rabid hamster. I just keep a large file of signatures and I recognized it. 

 

John C.

[Ray Singer]

1 hour ago, Bruce Pennington said:

 

@SteveM @Ray Singer or others - could we get a full translation?  There are a couple Yoshisada listed in Sesko's list and I'd like to pin one of them down for my records.

John has it above. Ishihara Yoshisada, the Seki smith.

 

[Bruce Pennington]

Thanks Ray! And John!

 

So, not much known about him:

"YOSHISADA (義定), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Gifu – “Yoshisada” (義定), real name Ishihara Jō´ichi (石原錠一)"

 

Now I'll have to go through my files to see which one's I have, because the RJT Yoshisada was Yamamura Yoshisada from Kochi, and used different kanji.

 

Thanks guys!