Help reading Mei

[p-joseph]

I have had this sword for a short while, tried without success to read the inscription on the tang. It is a katana. If you can help, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[Stephen]

is the smith youll have to wait for someone else to give the first name he is a seki smith. showato with the seki stamp.

[p-joseph]

How old could it be?

[sencho]

Hi Stephen,

 

stilllearning this stuff, but I had SEKI for the first kanji 関 and YA for the second 野

 

what kanji are you using for MASANORI??

 

Moriyama san.... we need you!!!

 

Cheers

[sencho]

How old could it be?

 

Probably WWII era .... see this link http://www.geocities.com/alchemyst/military.htm

 

cheers

[k morita]

Perhaps,　Noro(family name) Masanori.

濃州関 野呂正則

[Guest Simon Rowson]

Hi

 

As Sencho says, it's definitely WWII era and it also looks to be signed nakirishi mei as many of the Seki produced showato were....check the following link:

 

http://www.geocities.com/alchemyst/promei.htm

 

My first ever sword, a showato, had the "Seki" kanji carved in exactly the same way as your example, although by a different man.

 

Simon

[Nobody]

Hi,

 

According to the following page of Dr. Rich S.,

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

there are at least 8 smiths whose family name begins with 野 including Noro Masanori (野呂正則), such as Nozawa Yasuyuki (野沢康行), Noguchi Hidenobu (野口秀宣), Noguchi Naosuke (野口直助)........

 

If the photo shows only a part of the mei, I cannot specify the smith.

If it shows whole of the mei, then Sekino (関野) also could be a family name, though I think its chance is rare.

[sencho]

I didn't see the download on one pic that didn't show..... here it is

 

cheers

[p-joseph]

Hi again, that pic shows the last four characters, the original picture shows the first two of six characters. Thanks again

[Nobody]

Ah sorry, I did not realize that there are the 3rd photo.

It sure is Noro Masanori.

Thank you, sencho san.

[sencho]

there you go P.Joseph!!

 

関　野　呂　正　則　作

 

SEKI NORO MASANORI SAKU

 

SAKU means "made this"

 

Yakko dekki mashita Morita san, Moriyama san, Si-chan and the Osaka Obachan Stephen!!

 

Cheers

[p-joseph]

Hi, its amazing that the reading of the markings is so different from the formal text listed in the characters listed. I guess that is why I had difficulty trying to translate the writing. Thanks

[Stever]

its amazing that the reading of the markings is so different from the formal text listed in the characters listed

 

Seriously, this gets me every time. I can usually recognize saku and mitsu now but that's about it . How do you know if a tic mark in a written kanji is a tic or a line in the actual kanji? That masa, for instance. Seems only the stroke count is the same. I assume there's some methodology involved, or is it just pattern recognition?

 

Thanks

[p-joseph]

Thanks to those who helped!

 

Knowing that

??????????? SEKI NORO MASANORI SAKU

 

made the blade, do you think the blade is machine is machine made, handmade(traditional) quality? Is it worth anything?

[Brian]

P... (Mr Joseph?)...

Basically translates to Noro Masanori from Seki made this.

With that stamped Seki arsenal stamp..it means it is most likely a wartime non-traditionally made oil quenched blade. Not traditionally forged and folded, but a genuine piece of WW2 militaria.

I expect the value would be anywhere around $800-1500 depending on where you sell it.

Worth anything I guess depends on your idea of what a good value is

 

Regards,

Brian