Help identifying writing on a Japanese sword

shosar

A friend of mine recently inherited an old sword from her grandfather, who took it from a fallen Japanese soldier in the pacific. She's trying to find a translation and I figured I'd help her out by asking here. Is there anyone who can tell me what this says?

Spoilered since it's kind of large.

Nibble

It means the sword was made by a guy named 佐光信光, or Sako Nobumitsu.

An-D

If that name is right and its not an especially common name for a Japanese swordsmith than...

http://home.earthlink.net/~ttstein/tosho.htm


WWII Swordsmith?

PracticalProblemSolver

Take clear pictures of the tang, the whole sword, the tip, the clearest section of hamon and the fittings and post it somewhere like swordforum.com, under no circumstances attempt to clean the tang or the blade unless you discuss it with someone knowledgeable.

If you knew all that and just wanted the translation I apologize but often in these threads the next picture is after the person's wrecked the blade trying to clean it up.

It's hard to tell from the weird colors of the picture but if I had to guess: it looks like a well made sword, showa era.

I have some choji oil and uchiko you can have if you want.

shosar

Thanks a bunch for the help guys!

Penguin_Otaku

That's clearly a Hattori Hanzo