Nakago translation please

[jason_mazzy]

 

anyone know what this says or who he was? the blade is in rough shape but I think salvageble.

[Nobody]

Ref. http://home.earthlink.net/~ttstein/yoshnao3.jpg

[jason_mazzy]

Thank you Koichi Moriyama san.

 

I googled this name and pulled up nothing.

 

 

edit: I did find takeyama yoshinao (without the noshu ju part) referenced in a list of traditional smiths: the following swordsmiths are listed in either the Nihonto Meikan, Tosho Zenshu or John Slough's An Oshigata Book of Modern Japanese Swordsmiths 1868-1945

 

and a ranking chart of ww2 smith's

[cabowen]

By the way the nakago is finished (and then abused), this is not a quality blade, just another WWII gunto.

 

If you are interested in collecting showa-to and low class gunto, that is fine. If, however, you wish to collect quality blades, you would be much better off using your time to study and learn what quality is instead of spending it trying to id every beater you find in search of treasure.

 

I can completely understand that not everyone has the finances to simply pay retail and buy only Juyo and many have to hunt for bargains to be able to afford decent swords but you have to learn to walk before you can run. WWII era blades with broken and ground down kissaki, ground down and poorly finished nakago, etc. are all glaring indicators screaming "not worth the time and trouble". Until you educate yourself and learn to separate the wheat from the chaff on your own, your chances of finding treasure by dredging the sword boneyards are very slim....You would be better off playing the lottery and using your winnings to buy papered and polished blades.

[Jean]

Jason,

 

Keep this in mind, and also all NMB newbies looking at every wreck streaming along the river, that Nakago never cheat. A good nakago is a hint for a good sword. Look at all the Chinese fakes, they never think to nakago finish.

[jason_mazzy]

Thank you jean and I agree. I have been looking carefully at the nakago, and have noticed even on Japanese made blades you will see a wavier nakago, the blade is usually less quality. This nakago I had seen is on a blade 3 hours from me, which is surprisingly closer than most blades I get to see lol. There was alot of signature so I was quite curious to what it said, because The blade pictures were bad I didn't want to drive up all that way for a cheap poorly made gunto, hence I asked here.

 

Then when I got the translation I was curious because he was a ranked chu saku I believe ww2 nihonto smith. I found that interesting. And though gunto and gendai are not my thing, a rated smith for the time could be historical, and I always love history.

 

 

Chris. The nakago work looked pretty nice to me. from the low quality pictures I noticed that it was very straight and had nice shape. Unfortunately the guy who has it decided that removing the rust on one side so you could see the signature in the pics was a good thing. Now if this blade had been signed by some great shinto smith, I would have snatched it up for the $200 and hoped a polisher could restore it. At the end of the day $200 isn't alot but I am not sure I want to drive 3.5 hours to look at it if it is just gunto, but then again if it is forged by a traditional smith $200 wouldn't be bad either.

[cabowen]

Due to the damage to the nakago (and the mei), the blade is basically ruined as far as a collectible nihonto and not worth the cost to polish even if it was free.....even if a traditionally made WWII blade.....