Help on translation mei NAGAMITSU or TOMOMITSU????

Hi everyone!

I am training for mei translation not to be a newbie forever!

But there is at present a sword to sell on Ebay and the seller says it is signed NAGAMITSU. I have made a researsh and I translated it TOMOMITSU. I am not sure TOMOMITSU is correct but to me the mei on the tang looks more like TOMOMITSU than NAGAMITSU, otherwise I need to wear glasses! Furthermore, NAGAMITSU is better ranked thanTOMOMITSU.

The seller told me I was completly wrong.

I joined a pic of the tang.

Here is the Ebay link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/WWII-Japanese-Sword ... 1c0d1cdd46

and here is the the website I used to translate the mei:

http://www.jp-sword.com/

I will be glad to know what you think about that.

Thank you guys!

Bruno

Bonjour,

it is a blade of the well know showato swordsmith Nagamitsu.

Salutations.

Thank you!

Ok I was wrong so. I need to train again!

Bruno

The Kanji are: 長　光　作, Nagamitsu Saku.

Grey

Definitely Nagamitsu. See my webpage on him at:

http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/naga.htm

Rich S

Ok ok, I was wrong!

Many thanks to you all. Next time I will look closer. Anyway, I am becoming better an better in mei translation. Maybe one day I will be the one who can help other in translation!

Regards

Bruno

Bruno, That was an easy one.

To help you you have on the board the link to the "Nihonto kanji pages" and then you go to the Dr Stein's commercial sites in English. You take Aoi Art and study mei with their romanji equivalence (meaning in your case Nagamitsu saku ...) you'll learn a lot.

You shall also see that the same kanji can have different reading : it is the same kanji 長for "Osa" in Osafune that for Naga in Nagamitsu. The kanji Masa 正(for a name) can also be read "Sho " in a date as in Eisho or Tensho (Muromachi eras)

Eisho is written : 永正 but in some names 永 = Naga

Sorry I must left you to take some aspirines

Bruno,

you can find this smith also in John Slough Oshigata Book page 123 - 125

@ Jean: I fully agree with you. For beginner like me it is very hard and sometimes I need not only aspirines