naginata blade please help

[estcrh]

Originally Posted by mariusgmioc

Hello,
The writting is very crude and the shape, albeit very similar, is not of a typical naginata. So I suspect it is a Chinese blade.
You may want to join the Nihonto Message Board and use their forum as they are very knowledgeable about Japanese blades.
Good luck!
Marius

I agree that something is not quite right with this blade, pole and fittings, I have several very worn and out of polish naginata blades but they do not look like this. The photographs are not good at all, this may be one problem here, also the habaki has not been removed, all Japanese blades should be photographed without the habaki. The habiki and pole fittings seem....rather new maybe? The pole (nagaye) looks round...naginata poles are not round, they are oval, Japanese spear (yari) poles are round. The end cap (ishizuki) is not the typical naginata shape, the metal re-enforced part (tachiuchi) that is typically seen at the mouth of naginata poles looks strange....overall there are some questions that need to be addressed here.

Below are some examples I have, the blade is in very bad condition as you can see but it looks nothing like the one being discussed. I think some better, more detailed images may help.