Japanese? Chinese? Character Translation Requested

[JeffS]

Originally Posted by 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

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.