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Sword Translation

Sawyer21

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Hello,

I was given a sword by my father that was my grandfather's. I'm have some difficulty translating the maker's mark. Any help is greatly appreciated!
 

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越前住下坂

Echizen-ju Shimosaka
 
The name of the swordsmith is 正坂 Masasaka.
 
I think this belongs to the Echizen Shimosaka group.
I can't find any swordsmith named Masasaka, while the Shimosaka group is well known with many similar examples of signatures.


The horizontal line under the 下 and the line vertical line next to it make it look like 正, but I think this one is 下 (and the other lines around it are either mistakes, or unrelated scratches.)
 
Oh, I should have written "the name inscribed there" instead of "the name of the swordsmith".

signatures like "Echizen-jû Shimosaka", often added by Echizen smiths on the ura side of the tang, were sometimes changed to "Echizen-jû Masasaka" (越前住正坂)
 
I've read that piece before, and I've completely forgotten about it. Good call.
 
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