Japanese sword tang stamp?

Fred Rowe

Fred Rowe

Well-Known Member
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A customer left two Japanese swords at my shop asking if I could refurbish them. When I removed the handles I noticed one of the blades had a stamp on the tang, where the other did not.
The swords were identical in appearance other than the stamp. The owner of the swords said he purchased the pair from an estate and they were marked second world war with a date 1939-1940.
Both swords had surface rust and were heavily patina-ed. He wanted the blades refurbished to as close to original condition as possible. As the surface crude was removed I saw that there was a beautiful hamon running the length of the blade.
Both swords appeared to be of a lesser quality by the look of the hardware; brass castings and fittings; such as would be given to lower ranking troops.

I have two questions: is the hamon out of place on a sword of this manufacture?
Does any viewer have knowledge of the tang stamps?

Fred

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The stamp is a "Sakura" (cherry blossom) stamp. It is often referred to as a "Showa Stamp" which indicated that it is a factory made WW II blade. Most arsenal made blades were not made of tamahagane but are still of good quality and have a fair value to WW II collectors and martial artists. I believe the only exception to this rule would be the "Star Stamp" (Jumei Tosho) which indicates that the blade met certain government requirements to be among the best (I believe these were made by the smiths who were rationed tamahagane).
 
Bubba-San should chime in and give you a bit more information on this before too long. He is quite a bit better knowledged about this topic.
 
murphs info was as good as I could offer . You may want the nakago translated . I have a japanese friend who is very good at translating old blades.
 
If you look around, there are several websites which will assist you in translating the mei. I was able to translate all three of my blades using several different websites and taking hours of time to compare charecters (keep in mind that each stroke is chiseled by hand and differs from script, you really do have to translate).
 
I can translate Kanji , But it is a time consuming . Here are some sites to help with characters http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/nihonto.htm. Sometimes it takes a few days , because of mei are sometimes fake or signed by apprentice. It helps a lot if you speak or write some japanese. nanakorobi yaoki
 
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Japanese sword signature

Hello,

I don't know anything about Japanese swords, but I knew this for some reason.

Seki Ju Kane Michi (you might have to run these together like Sekiju Kanemichi if you search on the web for info. on him).

You can also copy and paste this to see what comes up: 関住兼道

Jon
 
naifu said:
Hello,

I don't know anything about Japanese swords, but I knew this for some reason.

Seki Ju Kane Michi (you might have to run these together like Sekiju Kanemichi if you search on the web for info. on him).

You can also copy and paste this to see what comes up: 関住兼道

Jon
Click to expand...

You seem to know quite a bit !! thanks
 
The sword says "Seki ju Kanemichi saku" made by Kanemichi, resident of Seki). KaneMichi is listed in Slough's book as a Med-High Showato and High-Superior Grade Gendaito and was a Raikujin Tosho and given a Special Honor seat in the 1941 exhibition. Your sword has good value , be carefull when polishing , dont polish the tang . its an indicator of age . congrats on a fine piece
 
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