Possible Tosho Script in Hot-stamp?

[Bruce Pennington]

Hoping someone (Nick Komiya!) can recognize these characters in a hotstamp. The stamp is found on blades made by Ogawa Tofuji 小川外藤. According to Malcolm Cox, "In 1941 Ogawa Tofuji was working for the Goto Kaji-jo (Goto Sword Forging Centre) in Seki, along with his teacher Kanekami. Perhaps the kokuin is a play on words and represents the Goto 後藤 Forge?

Mal also pointed out: "Another possibility is old Japanese measures as: “gou-to” 合 斗. Consider volume measures in terms of sake bottles, Japan standard is 1800 mL (1.8 mL) common sake bottle is 720 mL (4 gou) (standard wine bottle is 750 mL = 4.2 gou)
1 gou 合 = 180 mL (0.1804 L) (a standard serve of sake)
1 shou 升 = 1804 mL (1.804 L) (1 shou = 10 gou)
1 to 斗 = 18040 mL (18.04 L) (1 to = 10 shou = 100 gou)"

Here is the hotstamp and a photo (thanks to Mal) from the shop he worked:

[Nick Komiya]

That is a word play on the name Goto. The logo features the characters 五斗, which also reads Goto.

That happened to be the annual income of a low-class Samurai, which was roughly 50 scoops of rice with both hands forming a cup, thus a metaphor for a marginal livelihood in the Samurai world.

The outer shape of the logo is a sake bottle fashioned from a gourd.

Altogether, the logo is self-deprecating humor, likening oneself to a "penniless wino". or the "Goto Wino Forge".

Shown below is 五斗 in Tensho/stamp script, as used in the logo.

[Bruce Pennington]

That is a word play on the name Goto. The logo features the characters 五斗, which also reads Goto.

That happened to be the annual income of a low-class Samurai, which was roughly 50 scoops of rice with both hands forming a cup, thus a metaphor for a marginal livelihood in the Samurai world.

The outer shape of the logo is a sake bottle fashioned from a gourd.

Altogether, the logo is self-deprecating humor, likening oneself to a "penniless wino". or the "Goto Wino Forge".

Shown below is 五斗 in Tensho/stamp script, as used in the logo.

That's fabulous, Nick, thank you for having a look at this!

I get the feeling that Tofuji was also saying "Remember the 50 scoops? Ha, we're only getting 5 scoops!"