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Help with sword

DarioB.

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28 Dec 2016
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Hello, I am new both to the forum and to the world of japanese blades.

I have recently fell in love with a gunto I have found for sale on internet, and I have already tried to translate the mei but without success, can you help me with it?
Thank you for your help and sorry for my poor English.

ps: the kanji SHOULD (I don't know japanese and I 've used a software) be:

関亰住菊卅市貞治

十九年 missing 月一日作






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住菊地守貞治
十九年月一日作

It's a poorly made fake, or inscribed by a man Kikuchi Sadaharu jokingly.
 
Hello Dario

You have most of it right.
関東住菊地守貞治 Kantō-jū Kikuchi (mori? kami?) Sadaharu
The date (on the other side) is 19th year, August 1st. 19th of course refers to Shōwa era.

Sorry to say it looks like a fake (possibly Chinese) signature. The location (Kantō) is not used on swords, and the name seems to be a combination of bits and pieces of plausible-sounding kanji, but in the aggregate make no sense. There are at least two WW2 swordsmiths who have the last name of Kikuchi, but none who use the first name of Sadaharu. Sadaharu is a plausible first name, but it immediately makes me think of Sadaharu Oh, a well-known Chinese-Japanese baseball player. 守 is a funny kanji here as it looks out of place in a personal name, and you usually see this kanji on older swords as an honorary title (but it is only placed after province names). So...on the whole it looks very suspicious.

kikuchi.jpg

*Edit - Toritoribe-san was faster than me!
 
Thank you very much for your replies. This is a real let down, I thouGth I have found some trustworthy seller...
By the way I'll upload some other pics of the blade.





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