Good morning
During an occasional visit to my local auction house I mentioned to the auctioner that I was more interested in Japanese swords than the local fine arts production. He brought from storage a Japanese style blade. "naked" ie not even an habaki. Blade 72cm nagasa, finger rustmarks with a perfect balance in hand. Very attractive Katamaya style hamon. After a bit of talking I bought it on the assumption it was a good quality copy of a Japanese sword. My point was that the date on the tang was (my reading) Showa 20th year fourth month (April 1947), which was in my opinion the smoking gun for a copy.
Having the blade for a couple of month I wish to dissipate some doubts about the inscriptions. Can some one tell me that is gibberish Japonese or not ? Particularity of the tang: the mei side is nearly flat when the other side has a marqued ridge. The blade has been polished but the kisaki has only an advanced polish with midare temper.
Thank you very much for your help.
M.
1945, real gunto.
Hello,
Showa 20 is 1945, not 1947. Other than that the reading is correct.
I am not convinced this is a copy. I think it is a genuine gunto that has been very badly "cleaned" by someone who didn't know what they were doing. Polishing the nakago was an especially bad move (notice the patina inside the characters, and the remainder of filing marks... pretty sure it was once "correct"). However I'd need to see overall photos, photo of the kissaki, etc. to be sure. Looks like it might have an oil-quench hamon.
I will translate the mei and then come back with more info.
EDIT: so the mei is tricky but the second character is 房 fusa. The first character looks sort of like 義 Yoshi but I'm still looking.
unknown origin katana
Thank you very much. I thought the last kanji could be Fusa but I am a novice... However I have a question for you: my history studies ( I got a MA in 1968 ) told me that Hiro-Ito was proclaimed Emperor on December 25th 1926 and took the name of Showa for his reign, the Emperor Taisho had been handicapped for some years and Hiro-Ito as the Crown Price assumed the regency. If I adhere to the taught dating of Japanese Emperors reign, Showa 1 is from 25th December 1926 to December 24th 1927, hence my date: 1947. Was it an exception/different dating for Hiro-Ito ?
Attached 2 not too good shots of the kissaki.
Some more physical data:
Wheight of blade 860 grams.
Thickness at habaki(mune ridge): 7 mmm
Width: 32 mm
Width of mune: 12mm
Thickness at yokote: 6 mm
Width: 23mm
Width of mune at yokote: 10mm
Length of kisaki: 46 mm
Legth of tang: 24.3 cm
Will send photos of full length blade as soon as possible
Thanks again
Michel
Dating breakdown
Showa 1 starts in 1926 as you said; this is the key date. 1927 is therefore Showa 2 (even though 1927 is almost all of the first year-by-duration of Showa, officially Showa 1 ended in just a matter of days on Dec 31 1926). What's more, the first year of a given nengo is year 1, not year 0, so you've also made a very common calendar arithmetic error (even if 1927 was Showa 1, which it isn't, that would only make Showa 20 equal to 1946, not 1947; Showa 20 is 19 years after Showa 1, not 20 years). So Showa 20 is 1945.
Breaking it down even more specifically, because people very easily make both mistakes:
1926 - Taisho 13 & Showa 1
1927 - Showa 2
1928 - Showa 3
1929 - Showa 4
1930 - Showa 5
1940 - Showa 15
1945 - Showa 20
The shots of the kissaki are a little too blurry to really tell what's going on, but I look forward to the overall blade shots. I admit it's possible it is a copy but I am still very skeptical, the nakago looks exactly like a destroyed-by-cleaning gunto nakago down to the corrosion color in the pits and edges, the washed-out remnants of sujikai filing marks, and the very typical (albeit sloppy) mei. Not to mention the real-looking (though obscured by bad polish) hamon. If someone could make fakes this convincing, it would take a lot of man-hours; why not just make a real sword? Or fake a valuable sword (not just a lower-end gunto)? No, it is far more parsimonious that this is a real gunto that has just been mistreated.
stamp?
I agree that it looks like the real thing, and that the name is probably YOSHIFUSA.
It doesn't have a Seki or Showa stamp, does it?
One thing that seems slightly odd to me: The date seems to be written more "clearly" than the name. That is, the date looks more like kaisho, and less like gyosho... I suppose it's possible that the date was done by a different person, especially since this is a late-war blade
Pete