Gunto Tang Translation Please!

[Steve Flanagan]

Okay fellow sword guys, who is this smith? Kuni _____

[GHP]

国明
Kuniaki

He came under Horii's lineage. I'll look around to get the full inscription.

V. Hanazawa Tanren Jo (羽沢鍛練場) and the Horii (堀井) Group The Hanazawa Tanrenjo was opened in the late Meiji period and operated until the late Taisho period. The following list includes smiths from the Hanazawa Tanrenjo and their students:
.
.
.
.
1.1.5.2. Kuniaki (国明)

Source

</pre>--Guy

[Steve Flanagan]

Tang

Thank you, was going nuts trying to find comparison
There is one possible in Hawleys KUN-14 signed Sakai Ju Okimoto Kuniaki Saku

[GHP]

I'm not getting any success.

It might be something similar to this:

下腮住国明
I'm very confident about the first kanji being Shimo/Kuda 下; the second looks like it could be 腮 ... but I don't have a lot of confidence in this interpretation.
The last three definitely are "~ju-Kuniaki" 住国明.

I get hits for the kanji and romaji versions of Kuniaki. There was a lineage of Kuniaki, the last one being in 1804. But none of these signatures match your sword's inscription, so I think he might be the "Horii" Kuniaki.

The mystery continues ....

--Guy

Okay, that third kanji is definitely 住 - Resident of. Had to go and follow the strokes, then it hit me between the eyes!!!

[Steve Flanagan]

Sword

Thanks for the assist!

[GHP]

I just posted an edit in my post above.

--Guy

[GHP]

EURIKA!!!!

Found it on a Chinese blog about a gunto. He said:

29楼 unceta 陆军 下士 发表于 2010-1-28 9:17:46

这个是尉官刀。铭“下总住国明”。可惜，刀把上的鲨鱼皮裂了两处。

source

He used the new-simplified hanja 总. I went to Wiktionary and found the traditional hanzi is 總. So the mei ought to be:

下總住国明
Shimo-Fusa ju Kuniaki
[also pronounced Shimo-Usa]

I checked 下總 at Japanese Name Lookup and found the pronunciation; interestingly, Google Translate also gives an appropriate "Shimofusa" translation.

--Guy

[Steve Flanagan]

Tang

Many thanks for the hard work!