Help on a marking wakasagi Blade

[oberhaig]

Picked this up recently, it has a marking (sig?) on the edge of the blade. There is no signature on the blade - can anyone tell me what I have please?
I thank you in advance

[ghp95134]

山ヱ
Yamae
[US English pron: yama-ay]

The ヱ [eh] was obsolete since 1946. Possibly the full kanji *MIGHT* be 山江 [yamae], but who really knows: there are many other kanji names/place-names for yamae.

Here's the English wiki page for ヱ.

What wiki does not explain is that the root kanji from which ヱ derives is 恵 [Japanese: megu.mu、megu.mi, Chinese: kei, and e

-- Guy

[oberhaig]

Guy
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. I have to admit I'm none the wiser. It seems very complicated to me. Would there be anyway of dating the blade at all
Again many many thanks for taking the time to answer my question

[ghp95134]

I have no idea! I've not seen this part of the blade marked before unless it was a WW2-era blade; those were used as production numbers.

I have no idea what your 山ヱ means.

-- Guy