Sword ID Help Needed

[DaveA]

Hi Robert,

I may have found you some answers. I have attached your image of the writing for reference.

My daughter is fluent in Japanese and took at look at the writing. Here is what she wrote back:

"This is very old, fancy writing. The second character (far right column down) means I, or myself, the third character (below that one) could mean rice paddy, a common component of many Japanese names ("da"). HOWEVER, the character below rice paddy is part of the word "nihon" which means Japan, and that makes me think the rice paddy character is really the "ni" part of nihon, and just written in a really old fashioned way that's missing a stroke. The first column is probably the guy's name..the first two characters are "correct" and "fat," but there's probably an alternative meaning for the fat one. correct is pronounced tadashi and fat is futo. i can't read the last character. So the guy's last name was Tadashi and his first name was like fat something, maybe like "bountiful harvest."

Maybe now armed with this information you and other forum members can zero in on a better identification.

Best of luck,

Dave A.