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All the same to me Ian!;) Could be a bird - there is what might be the representation of an eye - even a few indentations that might be an allusion to feathers there on the 'shoulder'. The 'head'...

The menuki look a bit like one of Hiroshige's waves behind that shell and the fat little fellow might be Hotei, a good luck deity IIRC.

Or maybe Bodai Daruma, but Hotei is sometimes shown with...

Polishing is a skilled art indeed. We make much of the Japanese smiths, deservedly I suppose in many cases, but we have "amateur" smiths here in the West who not only forge, but file and polish...

No signature of any kind on the tang?

If not, I would guess that the quality might indicate a sword made for the tourist/export trade before WWII. Such pieces were of course only made "good...