Can anyone help translate this mei?

[Beater]

I apologise for the poor photo. It is all I currently have in my possession. I am struggling with this but think it may be Ki'emon Yoshi tsugu saku? If anyone can help with the first couple of kanji (place name?), I would be very grateful.

Thanks in anticipation.

[BruceP]

While Guy is working on this - - - What IS THIS?!?! I've never seen a signature affixed in such a way! How unusual!

[GHP]

Holy Cow!!! I sure can't make anything out of it.

Do any of these ring a bell for our experts?
菊萬左(or 右) 衛門＊連作 ???

====
Drilling Down to Disaster!!!

About the only kanji I have 100% confidence in are
....門....作
....Mon ..... Saku

The first kanji kind of looks like Kiku/Chrysanthemum ... but that's toooooooo fuzzy and I have no confidence in it; still:
菊

The second kanji looks sort of like "ban/man" [Ten Thousand]; again, I have no confidence in it ... but:
萬

The next three kanji can be a fairly good guess based on the fifth kanji 門 mon/gate; a traditional name is "so-and-so yuemon or saemon." Since the kanji preceding 門 ~mon looks kinda-sorta like 衛, I can guess that the one preceding 衛 is either 左 or 右:
左衛門 Sa-e-mon, or
右衛門 U-e-mon

the sixth kanji is just too obliterated to read.
?

The seventh kanji looks like Ren to me:
連

The eighth kanji is "saku/made by"
作


I hope someone can find a clue somewhere in that "dog's breakfast" I posted.
--Guy

[GHP]

While Guy is working on this - - - What IS THIS?!?! I've never seen a signature affixed in such a way! How unusual!

額銘 - Gaku-mei [framed name]. An original signature inlaid in a cut-off or folded over when a noted sword is shortened.

A shows just a shortening without displacing the original signature; B~C show the fold-over method; C illustrates the cut-out-and-insert method.


Errrrrr ..... how did you know I was working on the mei????


--Guy

[pmiya]

Orikaeshi Mei, when the blade was shortened the mei was folded over and inlaid into the tang.

Guy's illustration gives a better "visual" explanation.

[BruceP]

額銘 - Gaku-mei [framed name]. An original signature inlaid in a cut-off or folded over when a noted sword is shortened.

A shows just a shortening without displacing the original signature; B~C show the fold-over method; C illustrates the cut-out-and-insert method.


Errrrrr ..... how did you know I was working on the mei????

--Guy

Ha! I'm just THAT good, Guy!!! Ok, so it was a cry for help! Thanks for the info, I had never seen that done before. Too cool!

Beater- thanks for the exciting and cool nakago!!!

[Beater]

Thanks to Guy for your valiant effort. I knew it would be a challenge with the blurry photo and sometimes the process of folding the Mei results in hammer marks on the actually mei, if poorly executed.
I am usually suspicious of this type of Mei as it is easy for the forgers (of old) to get up to all sorts of trickery. The sword belongs to a dealer who I have bought many swords from but I've decided that I will pass on this one.
Glad it was able to extend the knowledge of what you might encounter to some of the new comers to our wonderful hobby.