"Vines" Tanto - the Mei - Fusanobu?

My first Japanese blade. I'm a little intimidated posting here, I feel like I don't know nearly enough.

My thanks to Fred Lohman, who was able to take all the peices and parts I sent him, and assemble it into a work of art.

I'm starting separate threads for the blade and the koshirae, in the appropriate sub-forums. The blade is here: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5583&p=43423#p43423 and the koshirae if you would like to see them are here: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5584

I'm told that the last two characters of the mei are "Fusanobu", but I've been having considerable difficulty with the first character. And help and information about the smith would be much much appreciated!!

I realize the first character is not clear in the above picture, so I blew it up and traced it out in photoshop.

Any help you can give will be much appreciated!!

Thanks!!

peace.

Actually, I cannot decipher the first character.

My guess is …

源房信 – Minamoto Fusanobu.

Hey! Saw your post on the other forum as well. Thanks for the input!

Using the smith's database, there was a Minamoto Fusanobu working around 1684. I'm pretty sure the blade isn't that old.

I've literally sat in Barnes and Noble for hours flipping through page after page of Japanese dictionaries looking for this kanji, and come up with nothing.

Is it possible it's ideosyncratic to this one smith or to a village, and wouldn't show up in a dictionary or a list of kanji? Or maybe it's archaic and wouldn't show up in a modern dictionary?

It seems to be a stumper.

The blue outline photo - it looks exactly like that. There's no blurring on the carving. It's really clear. It's my photography that is visually indicipherable.

Thanks!

peace.

Does anyone agree that it could be "Minamoto"?

This one's giving me no end of frustration. Any help is much appreciated.

peace.

Hi,

This mei looks amateurish to my eyes, I hope to be wrong but i've a bad feeling with this blade; it looks like some blades made for tourists in the late Meiji.

Chuck, if Koichi san (Nobody) says it could be Minamoto, then I will go with that judgment.

He is way beyond most of us here, and will not say something unless there is a reason.

He will always hedge his bets if he is not sure. I trust him. If Minamoto is his guess, that is

probably as close as we will ever get with those photos. Peace.

Hi,

 

This mei looks amateurish to my eyes, I hope to be wrong but i've a bad feeling with this blade; it looks like some blades made for tourists in the late Meiji.

How would I know if this were the case? The bade itself seems to me to be pretty solid, and has a beautiful hamon. However, I am definately no expert in this area - this is my first Japanese blade, purchaced while dangerously undereducated. What would I look for?

I've seen tourist blades in "kitchen steel" with the carved ivory handles and sayas at local flea markets touted as "genuine samurai swords". This is higher quality than those, at least. I hope.

Wouldn't a high- or even mid- quality blade have value even if it was made for the tourist market? Like I said, I'm newer at this than I probably should be, and there is much that is confusing.

Chuck, if Koichi san (Nobody) says it could be Minamoto, then I will go with that judgment.

He is way beyond most of us here, and will not say something unless there is a reason.

He will always hedge his bets if he is not sure. I trust him. If Minamoto is his guess, that is

probably as close as we will ever get with those photos. Peace.

Ah. Ok, much thanks. I'll go with Minamoto. I assume not every Minamoto Fusanobu is in the data base, and there could have been more than one. Are there any other resources I can use to track the smith down and find out more information?

...and the implied criticism of my photo skills is noted. I suck. Better photos would require taking this back apart, and I'm a little hesitant to do that having just put it together.

Much thanks!!

peace.

Chuck, thanks for taking it in the right spirit. All I wanted to say was that Nobody is not just anybody

around here!

As to the photos, they're a lot better than I could do and it would be a miracle if you could extract

any more than that out of the Mei. Good luck with the search, even if you do not get the answers that

you are looking for right away.