Ww2 katana

[26Intrepid]

Hello all,

I’m only posting one pics to see if somebody can give me some info on the signature... mid or late war katana?

[ghp95134]

Nah, that style of "engraving" is not accurate to a real gunto or katana. It's probably a Chinese copy. The signature is not accurate:
杉山住人肥前清次
Sugiyama Jūnin Hizen Kiyotsugu.
Kiyotsugu Hizen, Resident of Sugiyama.

NOPE -- that does not compute.

-- Guy

Edit: Let's see the rest of the naked blade and a shot of the kissaki (tip). Maybe someone added a new fake signature to a gunto? I'm still betting this is a modern Chinese copy. The Chinese turn out good "gunto-quality" martial arts "katana," so it might look good.....

[26Intrepid]

Thank you for the reply... so most probable a Chinese copy?

Thanks again,
D

[ghp95134]

Thank you for the reply... so most probable a Chinese copy?

Just based on the one image I see, yes.

-- Guy

[DaveR]

You have shown us one small portion of a complete object, and from an odd angle. The information you get will be just as complete and distorted.


When Posting Japanese Sword Tangs For Translation

[26Intrepid]

Sorry... that was the only pic of the signature and these are the only other photos. The other parts look legit... I was more concerned about the blade. Sorry for the lack of info.

D

[DaveR]

From the photo's it looks fairly decent.... WW2 era made, and might even be a nihonto rather than showato, but you can never really tell until it is in hand.

If it is a China fake, they have avoided all the usual mistakes and the only people to manage that were Paul Chen Hanwei, and those cost as much as the real thing. They also did not get the Ito quality right whereas this one has good Ito and the proper style wrap.

I don't do signatures, but I have seen some very poor style signatures on Showa era blades.

[Nick Komiya]

The Mei is a complete fabrication meant as a joke to anyone capable of understanding what it says. It uses characters commonly used in real Mei, but reverses people and place names to avoid fraud charges. It's like writing "George New York of Barnes" instead of what should have been "George Barnes of New York". Normally it should have been 肥前住人杉山清次 (Seiji Sugiyama, resident of Bizen Province), but word order was altered to say Seiji Bizen, resident of Sugiyama Province (there was no such Province).

[26Intrepid]

Thanks DaveR for the reply...

I thought the saya and fittings all look legit... seems like you can’t but anything anymore without some apprehension

It’s the blade that I question... my thinking is the other parts are real and blade is a Chinese replacement.

[26Intrepid]

Thanks Nick... I will go with what you say. That makes complete sense to me.