Japanese? Chinese? Character Translation Requested

[RobT]

Hi All,

When I first saw this knife on the seller’s table, I thought it was Philippine but on closer inspection, I’m not so sure. The 6.125” (15.5cm) blade is ground on one side only. As you can see from the flat side photo, the blade profile, while slightly asymmetrical, really doesn’t have a clip point as the grind would make it appear. The ground side of the blade is stamped with Japanese or Chinese characters plus a concave sided diamond shaped maker’s mark with some illegible characters inside it. Can anyone translate the legible characters? The guard, ferrule, and pommel cap are steel. It appears that the tang is peened over the pommel cap but it looks like factory work, not the typical Philippine blacksmith job. The hilt itself is lathe turned hardwood and is very smooth. The shape reminds me of a plug bayonet hilt. The blade, guard, and pommel cap are joined together with no movement but the ferrule and the wood hilt rotate freely. There is a leather washer at the base of the blade. No sheath.

Sincerely,
RobT

[Battara]

Looking Chinese to me in general. Specifically, the writing appears to me to be Chinese conji.

[JeffS]

Translated by Google

[RobT]

Hi All,
I forgot to mention that the blade is single edge with the short bevel providing a false edge at the tip. Does anyone have any idea where this dagger comes from?

Battara,
It would appear that Jeff S agrees that it is Chinese and has provided a translation.

Jeff S,
Any idea why someone would stamp “special” on such a plain Jane dagger? Granted, it looks serviceable enough but it doesn’t seem to me to have features that would make it special.

Sincerely,
RobT

[JeffS]

Hi All,
I forgot to mention that the blade is single edge with the short bevel providing a false edge at the tip. Does anyone have any idea where this dagger comes from?

Battara,
It would appear that Jeff S agrees that it is Chinese and has provided a translation.

Jeff S,
Any idea why someone would stamp “special” on such a plain Jane dagger? Granted, it looks serviceable enough but it doesn’t seem to me to have features that would make it special.

Sincerely,
RobT

I would take the translation with a grain of salt! It does confirm that it is Chinese though. Edited to add: Actually just looked up with AI assistance which suggests Japanese.

[RobT]

JeffS,

Thanks for following up on this. I really suspected that the characters are Japanese but I didn’t know for sure. It’s pretty interesting that the translation of the Chinese characters (“special”) is so close to the Japanese kanji for “specially made”.
However, it’s rather odd to see a Japanese made blade that isn’t symmetrically ground. So the questions now are: Who was the maker that used the diamond logo?, Why did the maker consider the dagger to be specially made?, For what culture was it made?

Sincerely,
RobT

[JeffS]

Note that AI-based answers should be taken with a hefty grain of salt. I think it can still go either way - Chinese or Japanese since they both use those characters.