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Need assistance with Japanese Sword translation of markings

jseeby

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30 Jan 2014
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I have a WW2 sword with markings on some of the pieces. Think it could be a name and a place? I have attached two photos, one with a drawing (me drawing out what I see on paper) and another photo of the image on the sword piece. Any help is very appreciated.
 

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Hello jseeby,

I don't see what you see. You've written down what could be construed as 松崎 (Matsuzaki) which would be someone's surname. It's unlikely someone would just randomly inscribe a location name on the part you've shown (called a "seppa"). Actually its also pretty implausible that someone would inscribe their surname on the seppa too, but slightly less implausible than someone inscribing a location name on the same.

Be that as it may, the actual scratchings on the seppa you've shown do not look like any sort of authentic Japanese inscriptions (in my opinion... some of the other readers might have a different view). They just look like odd bits of kanji, or things that are meant to look like kanji. They look strange and out of place. But as I mentioned in another thread, WWII-era swords have minimal monetary value as antiques anyway, as most of them were mass-produced in factories. The seppa is just a functional piece to the sword, and you wouldn't normally find an inscription on it. Even if you did it wouldn't really mean much. The sword itself is the important thing.
 
Seems like a Japanese surname 松崎 [Matsuzaki] that was poorly engraved by someone who was probably not familiar with Chinese characters.

EDIT:
Ooops, Majestic-san beats me.:emoji_blush: Yeah, I totally agree with this.
They just look like odd bits of kanji, or things that are meant to look like kanji. They look strange and out of place.
 
Thanks for the information. Each one of the pieces has a similar inscription and that makes sense it is a surname. There is also a family crest on the handle as well so guess it all fits together. Correct on the value of the NCO machine made blades, mine has a much older remounted blade which is what really drives the value.

Thanks again for the assistance.
 
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