This is a collection of oshigata of Japanese swordsmiths of the Showa (WW II) era. These oshigata have been collected over the years from a variety of sources. As these oshigata were gathered from a variety of sources, the quality varies considerably. However, I believe they are all readable and therefore usable. These oshigata should be used as an aid in translation only, not necessarily as examples of shoshin (genuine) mei. No distinction has been made between those smiths making gendaito or showato as many smiths made both. With few exceptions, most are fully translated. This collection is far from complete in that it does not begin to document all the swordsmiths working during this time period.

This page can be searched using the "Find in Page" feature of your web browser. The oshigata can be searched by the smith's name (ex. Kanesane) or by the first or last part of the swordsmith's name (ex. chika). In some cases there are multiple oshigata of the same name. This is to show variations in the mei of the swordsmith or different swordsmiths using the same name (for example, there are at least four different smiths signing Nagamitsu). I apologize for any errors in the translations. I hope you will find this collection useful. - Richard Stein