help with mei

[kim]

hi, i am new to this forum so please be gentle. i am trying to discover who this signature belongs to. the sword is in ww2 military mounts which are in good order they still have the gold paint inlayed on kubuto-gane. The saya is metal but is painted black with gold splashes(sorry about the poor picture) would this have been done at a later date .It also has a silver mon of a tatibana the on the tsuka. Any help would be great.Thanks kim.

[John A Stuart]

Hi Kim, Iread as follows; Hokugawa, maybe Naganori. I have trouble with the 3rd kanji down. John

[kim]

thanks John i thought the same but like you i cannot discipher the third kanji. i'm glad i'm not the only one I thought it may be the Japanese for Go but the new menuki awa has been punched through. any one else has an idear. I would be glad to hear from you.

[John A Stuart]

Hi This river is north of Tokyo by the Shiobara Valley. I looked through the Tokyo index but could find nothing similar. John

[kim]

So possibly the first two kanji relate to the province and are not the smiths name. this may explain why i cannot find out anything . i thought that possibly there would be shu, ju or kuni meaning resident of. In this case I will have to have a closer look at the third kanji.This detecting ain't easy ya know! Still it's a lot of fun. Thanks John

[kim]

Possibly the third kanji is Yasu? kim

[John A Stuart]

Hi Kim, I do not think so. The sosho script for aki, yasu does not match at all. John

[Nobody]

Hi,

 

The mei reads Kitagawa Katsunori (北川勝則).

 

Ref. http://home.earthlink.net/~ttstein/seki.htm

[John A Stuart]

Hi Koichi-san, So is this fellows real name Kitagawa Katsukazu or Katsuichi? Plus, this really is important, how do you know when to use the Chinese sound or the Japanese sound. Like Hokugawa, the river and Kitagawa a personal name? This would really help me with these mei. John

[Nobody]

Hi Koichi-san, So is this fellows real name Kitagawa Katsukazu or Katsuichi? Plus, this really is important, how do you know when to use the Chinese sound or the Japanese sound. Like Hokugawa, the river and Kitagawa a personal name? This would really help me with these mei. John

Hi John,

 

I think that his real name may read Kitagawa Katsuichi.

As for the second question, it is very difficult to answer, because I unconsciously read them in most cases.

 

I am thinking of my reading procedure again;

Regarding 北川 for an example, I might have judged the kanji as a family name before actually read it with sound. Because I was reading a mei on a nakago and I knew that 勝則 must be a smith name from my experiences, 北川 was naturally thought to be a family name or place name in most cases. However, 北川 is common as a family name, while it is rather miner name as a place to be used on a mei.

If it was a family name, its usual reading was Kitagawa or Kitakawa. Hokukawa or Hokkawa could be its reading, but I never thought of that, because its possibility is small (but not zero) as a family name.

 

Generally, the readings of proper nouns in kanji are difficult except you know their names beforehand in your memory.

[John A Stuart]

Hi Koichi-san, 100 % makes sense. Experience always outweighs guesswork. Thank you, John

[kim]

Thank you kiochi-san, this would explaine why i had so much trouble finding out about this smith. Kim