IJA Sword Signature HELP please

[Ian Lim]

Dear All,

I have not been able to find out the English name of this swordsmith, checked John Scot Slough's book twice.

It is difficult because the book provides you with the A to Z names of swordsmiths but I don't know the English translation, so had to compare the Japanese characters against each smith till my eyes started seeing stars..

[Ian Lim]

this one I managed to find, it is on page 74 it means Kaneyoshi and he made Medium-High Grade swords

[Edokko]

Ian, your first tang has Noguchi Kiyomiya （野口清宮）as the smith mei, but have not been able to get much info on this smith. Most likely a war time smith but not sure of his background.

[Ian Lim]

Dear Edokko,
Thanks a lot

can help with 1 last signature, can't find this too.

[Edokko]

Ian, this one is Hidetoshi （秀俊）and seems to have been one of the war-time Seki residing gunto smiths. True name of the smith was Ido Toshizou. Hope this helps !