Hey Guys, I picked up this sword recently. I showed it to a friend and He pointed out a few unusual features. 1)The handle has a family crest/Clan mark in what appears silver. 2) The Scabbard is wood and appears to be covered in Snake skin. The Blade has a decent polish and has characters on both sides as shown in the pics. It has no ****nal marks between the notch & the peg hole. The blade measures 26 5/16 inches from the notch to the tip. I'm very new to this & would appreciate help with reading the characters. Also any info on the handle crest and the scabbard covering. Thanks in advance, Johnny

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I've been informed by a forum member that the pics to be read are to be vertical. .My bad. Told you that I was a new.

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I cannot translate the mei or signiture for you but the the silver emblem is called a mon and is a family crest. These are often quite old but difficult to research unless the name of the officer owning the sword is on the tang. These could also, I am told, be bought or obtained in pre WW2 Japan and thus many were made and given out easily. They do not all go back centuries. David

The two charcter signature (shown upside down and sideways) seems to be Masayuki and the other side is Showa 17 August (1942).

There are a couple of listed Masayuki swordsmiths. One is more famous and his swords often have a star stamp on the tang. His signature is different as well. I'm not sure how the other, Sunaga Masayuki, signed. SInce the sword is nicely mounted it could be the blade is better quality and by this smith.

Here is a chart of Mon and yours seems to be similar to the one in the bottom row center http://www.shop-japan.co.jp/english-boku/image-e/kamon.gif

There are thousands of Mon designs. This would be ordered by the officer to be applied to the sword when he purchased it. It indicates his clan or family affiliation.

Nice sword with the extras...like the scabbard covering, Mon and possibly a better blade. It indicates the officer had a little money to spend for the upgrades.

I did a little more searching and found the (likely) Masayuki who was a traditional Gendai swordsmith. He signed in a couple of different ways such as "made by Jida Masayuki". In this case, it's simply "Masayuki".

Masayuki is listed among Gendai smiths in Tony Thomas' Toko Taikan as MAS1457 (8pts) TTp589.

So, a decent Gendaito with nice fittings - great find actually.

THE INFORMATION YOU RECEIVED FROM PAUL IS CORRECT. A GOOD EXAMPLE OF WORK OF THE PERIOD. FOR YOUR INFORMATION ONLY, JAPANESE IS READ VERTICALLY ON THE TANG. THE WRITING BEGINS AT THE TOP JUST UNDER THE CUTTING EDGE AND IS READ DOWNWARD TOWARDS THE END OF THE TANG.

Here's a site that identifies the Kuruma (wheel) design Mon as used by the family name Satou http://www.asgy.co.jp/anglais/top10family/satou.html

Posted the pics wrong again for a 2nd time. Wow, Do I feel like an idiot.David,Paulj & Bob I'd like to thank you for your response & info. Paul thanks for links, it's obvious that you put some time into it.
Do you have any idea if that is snake skin on the scabbard ?

Last try with pics. Here goes.

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THE MATERIAL ON HE SCABBARD APPEARS TO BE POLISHED RAY SKIN.

It's always fun reasearching something like this. It takes a little time but there's satisfaction in a successful hunt.

If you could post a few good images of hamon temper line, it would be nice to see it. It looks good in the one shot of the full sword.