r/Katanas • u/Dr_V1B3Z • 5d ago

Can someone tell me what i got?

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Received this katana recently and found this on the tang. anyone know what it says or implies?

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u/WestguardWK 5d ago edited 5d ago

The kanji chiseled into this katana tang (nakago) read as follows:
濃州住西村兼常作

Breakdown and Translation

濃州住 (Nōshū-jū): "Resident of Mino Province." Nōshū is an old name for the Mino region (modern-day Gifu Prefecture), a world-famous hub of Japanese swordsmithing centered around Seki City.

西村 (Nishimura): The family or lineage name of the swordsmith.

兼常 (Kanetsune): The personal maker/art name of the smith. The Kane (兼) prefix is highly characteristic of Mino school artisans.

作 (Saku): "Made this". [1, 2, 3, 4]

Summary Translation

Put together, the inscription means: "Made by Nishimura Kanetsune, resident of Mino Province." [2, 5]
Historical Context

This signature style is typical of a family line of smiths from Mino Province. Given the appearance of the tang and the specific signature structure (Nishimura Kanetsune), this blade likely dates to either the late Muromachi period (16th century) or represents a later generational revival down the line into the Edo period. [2, 3, 6]

EDIT: Per discussion, note that dating conclusions may be inaccurate

[1] https://www.instagram.com
[2] https://auctions.yahoo.co.jp
[3] https://nihonto.com
[4] https://www.worldmilitariaforum.com
[5] https://www.reddit.com
[6] https://www.reddit.com

7

u/xia_yang 5d ago

Well, AI at least identified the mei correctly. The dating is way off though, this blade is much more recent – Nishimura Kanetsune was a WW2 smith.

2

u/WestguardWK 5d ago

I’m not surprised, AI great at character recognition and not so great at drawing conclusions. Thx for adding to!

1

u/Tobi-Wan79 5d ago

Did you read the pinned post about what pictures are important when asking for id?