Translation help

[shadow4256]

I recently acquired this for my antique firearms collection. I was told by the person selling it that is a Japanese tanegashima from the late Edo period but that is all he knew. He never had the writing on it translated. I do not know Japanese but I was hoping someone could confirm that these are Japanese characters and provide a translation if possible. Pictures are attached. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Majestic]

Yes, its Japanese. It says something like

江州國友赤三郎二重巻 重富
Gōshū Kunitomo Sekisaburō Shigemasa

It means the gun was made by Shigemasa of the Kunitomo group based in Gōshū province. It's slightly difficult to confirm, since all the pictures are chopped and turned at different angles. Possible to take a shot of the complete mei?

 

[shadow4256]

Thanks for the reply. Sorry about the somewhat inferior pictures. The barrel was quite rusty when I got it and the characters were not readable.I just finished cleaning it up when I took them. I will take better ones tomorrow and post them. I know Japanese reads different than English so for future reference, what direction should the words be going when I take the pictures? Also, what would be a good reference to do more research on this gunsmith/region? I like to learn as much as I can about the pieces I collect. Thanks.

 

[mdchachi]

The top and bottom pictures should be rotated clockwise 90 degrees. The middle picture is upside down.

 

[Toritoribe]

Please refer to the following wikipedia pages for Kunitomo group and Gōshū province. As written there, Kunitomo was originally a location name in the present Nagahama city, Shiga prefecture , and Gōshū is another name of Ōmi.

国友 - Wikipedia

ja.wikipedia.org

(all in Japanese)

Ōmi Province - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org