Craftsmanship in Wood

I have quite a few second hand kanna which I’m slowly restoring. Most are average quality but some seem very good with wrought iron jigane and laminated chip breakers.
I’d like to know the makers of these blades but don’t want to waste members’ time with photos and requests for identification. Is there a way to translation the brand names online and then look up the makers?
Any help appreciated

While that seems like a problem which could be solved with a technological approach, there's nothing out there which i'm aware of doing that task for something so specialized as inscribed mei on kannami. They're tough to read in any case, especially for a non-native speaker, but I'd be willing to have a go, as would others here I'm sure.

Thanks for the offer Chris. I'll post a few photos soon. I was able to identify one blade from a list on The Japan Blade so was a bit encouraged by that.

Hi Chris,

Below are photos of blades. Hope you can identify some or all. I was able to get the name Dogu from blade 5.

Two more. I wasn't able to attach more than 5 to the first post.

Gadge wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 29, 2017 5:28 pm

I was able to get the name Dogu from blade 5.

That one is read Dogyū (土牛), which is literally 'earth cow'. The term refers to a tale of an earthen statue of a cow erected in front of the Imperial Palace by a fortune teller (diviner) to ward off a plague. So, i guess the name is synonymous with 'good omen'.

The square box on the lower left contains a pair of characters, 井本, read Imoto, which tells you the maker of the plane, namely Imoto Masao.

Daruma wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 29, 2017 8:03 pm

Blade 5- the name on the left Tetsu Yama Hito maybe is read Tesanjin
The center Kanji is Tsuchi Ushi
The bottom is Kyosho (Master)

For the blade name, those are the kun-yomi for those characters, but I'm 100% certain the name is read with the on-yomi, as 'Dogyū.

And I think it is tetsuzan-jin for '鉄山人', which translates as 'Iron Mountain Person’, however I'm less sure of that reading being correct, nor is it clear to me what it is in reference to.

Daruma wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 30, 2017 12:27 am

Blade #7- 東源次 on-yomi= togenji
kun-yomi= Azuma Minamoto tsugi
.....also appears to be a name
maybe a combination of the two readings.... Azuma Genji?

I can`t really work out the kanji on the left side of #6 and #7

I'm fairly sure the reading for '東源次' is Azuma Genji. That Niigata Factory produced planes in fairly high volumes from 1953 or so, and they were popular for a long time. They have an arrow feather filed finish.

Here's a page showing some pictures of blade production:

http://www.dogudoraku.com/catalog/produ ... s_id/60889


This picture shows the kanji on the left side more clearly (setting up a 'hit out of the park' for Daruma...):

Chris, Daruma,

Thanks for all your work. I appreciate your help. Please post if you discover more info.

Thanks Daruma. I like Blade #1 very much. It's in very good condition with chip breaker. Both unused, I think. One of my jobs in the near future will be to make a dai.