Nihonto Club

Hi Neil,
I'm not sure what I see here. The kanji hint at Chinese.
The two that would be the smith's name is not a familiar Japanese name, and certainly not a familiar smith's name (to me).
The strokes do not appear to be made of individual chisel strokes, which would mean that each kanji was stamped as a unit (or carved some other way). What is the white stuff inside the strokes? What does it look like if you clean it out?
On the date side, not sure what the Nengo (era) name is - the first kanji is clearly "JOu", and the second one is a bit like "O"...?? If it's JOuOu, then the year is 1661.
The tip of the nakago looks a bit awkward.
The mekugi-ana appears to have very sharp edges, indicating it may have been drilled, rather than punched. Not a good sign, if so.

I'm suspicious of the whole thing. Does the rest show features that look legit?

Pete

Hi Pete,

Thank you for your message.

I agree, I could not make head nor tail of it - one charcter I read as 'Moto', but the rest made no sense.

The blade is Naginata Naoshi style and I was suspicious of it from the start. I bought this sword as an extra in a bundle, as I collect Gendai and amongst the others I was pleased to find a a nice Shinshinto period 'Amahide', a 'Kanehide', 'Koaisshin' and a 'Akitomo'. All of these of these are fine, but this sword really foxed me as I have never failed in reading a Mei in 30 years of collecting!

Kind regards,

Neil