Is it an kanji character?

[ral6014]

Could this be an kanji character? The blade for itself should be a little bit older in my opinion. Any thougts?

[ral6014]

More

[ral6014]

And now the unknown mark.

[DanielSvensson]

My bet for what it's worth is WW2 Showato.
Kind Regards
Daniel

[gunto]

I go with Daniel on the Showato.

The kanji is Kuchi and means Mouth.

[GHP]

The character ロ is either "guchi" [mouth] or perhaps a counter like "a-b-c", implying it is the second assembly piece? If I'm correct about its being a counter, it comes from an ancient hiragana poem Iroha that uses once each hiragana character for the entire poem. Back in 1969 (in Bangkok) my Japanese classmate said this poem was a method of learning hiragana, a form of the Japanese "alphabet." I discovered later its use as ordinals.

Thus, I = 1 or 1st; Ro = 2 or 2nd; Ha = 3 or 3rd.

<table align="center" border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td>イ (i)</td> <td>ロ (ro)</td> <td>ハ (ha)</td></tr></tbody></table>
Previously on WAF I've seen a sword with the name 山口 Yamaguchi in a similar location to your ロ; I remain puzzled.

Regards,
--Guy

[ral6014]

"showato" means a sword produced in showa period perhaps civilian mounted? Is it possible to say something about the exact date of manufacturing?

[gunto]

somewhere between 1926-1945.