Signature on blade help

[rkhunter]

Hi, this is my fathers sword and it was a Scottish Veterans bring back from WW2. It has shin gunto mounts that are in rather poor condition but it has a very nice copper Habaki that may be old. The blade has some very small chips on the cutting edge but has no Hagire that I can see. The blade looks like its in very old polish and it could do with a new one. The hamon is quite hard to make out but looks like Suguha, Notare temper line. The sword is approx 34 3/4 inch long and the cutting edge is approx 27 inch long. Any help will be much appreciated as my father has had this sword for many years and would love to know more about it. The sword is very nice and am I right in thinking this is a Tachi ? Cheers, Kai

 

P.S. sorry for the poor pictures, I am terrible at taking pictures of swords

[rkhunter]

2.

[rkhunter]

3.

[John A Stuart]

This is a sword made by Kunimori 國護 John

[george trotter]

Your sword is signed "ToTo Ju Nin I-Kan-Sai KuniMori Kin Saku" (Ikkansai Kunimori, a resident of Tokyo respectfully forged this). This is Miyaguchi Shigeru...he was a smith of the Yasukuni Forge and had the name Yasuhiro. In 1937 he accepted the post of head of the Okura Tanrenjo on Baron Okura's estate. At this place he signed as for your sword...Kunimori. There is a lot of information on him as Yasuhiro, but less is known of his work as Kunimori.

You can start your research with Slough pp 182-185.

Good luck...interesting find.

Regards,

Edit: John has already identified him.

[rkhunter]

Hi, thank you very much for the feedback, my father will be very happy with this info on his sword and will give the foundation for further research. Cheers, Kai

[george trotter]

"An Oshigata book of Modern Japanese Swordsmiths 1868-1945" by John Slough

Oshigata are the rubbings of the signatures on swords. Just google the title, you should be able to get a copy...most other sources are in Japanese.

Your sword is signed as a tachi.

Regards,

[rkhunter]

Hi, thanks George. cheers, Kai

[runagmc]

I remember reading somewhere that swords signed KUNIMORI by this smith are of a lower quality. I have no idea how true it is. As usual, I'm sure it shouldn't be considered an absolute rule, but more of a general guideline.

[cabowen]

Swords signed Kunimori are not made of tamahagane. Many, or most, were daisaku.