Help with Mei and Tensho Script

[Bruce Pennington]

Dan has this Meiji era blade with some Tensho script at the top. Could I get a translation of both the mei and the script, please?

Found here: Bruce Pennington Stamp Alert! - Military Swords of Japan - Nihonto Message Board

[Kiipu]

The middle two characters are 小銃 [rifle]. This was a prefix used by 村田経芳 Tsuneyoshi Murata. Murata signed as 小銃兼正 from 1889 to 1892; but, this blade predates this as it is dated 正明治廿一年八月 [1888-08]. So at the moment, it is a bit of a mystery. Possibly Nick, bangbangsan, or Guy can fill in some of the kanji character blanks.
Murata Swords 村田刀

[ghp95134]

Nah, Kiipu -- I'm stumped as well. All I could find is:
小銃 *定
Shōjū *sada.
Like Kiipu, I cannot find anything about him.

I'm stumped on the tensho as well. The top kanji begins with a 木 "tree" radical. It sort of looks like 椎 [beech tree of genus Castanopsis] in tensho:


The bottom kanji comprises 艸 "grass" and 方 "direction" on the left side; can't make out the right side.

-- Guy

[ghp95134]

Deleted; I repeated what Kiipu wrote about the Murata-to.

[Bruce Pennington]

Here's the word from NMB SteveM:

" The first two are 小銃囗囗. If this were a Murata sword, the last two characters should be 兼正 (Kanemasa).

Obviously the ones on this sword are different. Possibly 元定 (Motosada). But as far as I know he only used Kanemasa with the surname Shōjū. The stamps say Murata Tsuneyoshi in stylized tenshō script. "

So I wonder why the stamps would be for Tsuneyoshi, but the smith name is something else?

[Kiipu]

Same sword, just a different NMB thread with additional pictures.
Meiji date help

[Nick Komiya]

It looks to me like 小銃経芳 with the last 2 characters simplified like they did on navy ID numbers. Those two are anyway not proper kanji. As to the Tensho stamp, we need a properly focused picture that show the strokes. There's no way that it can be saying Murata Tsuneyoshi, as you need 4 characters for that instead of 2.

[Bruce Pennington]

I tried to enhance as much as possible. The original poster isn't the owner. But I'll see if he can request a better picture.

[ghp95134]

It looks to me like 小銃経芳 with the last 2 characters simplified like they did on navy ID numbers....

I just can't see that, Nick. That last kanji is definitely 定 sada:
小銃囗定

Compare "our" 定 with Kanesada's 定:


-- Guy

[Nick Komiya]

I've never had the patience to guess what Picasso was trying to paint, so I'll defer to Guy on this matter.