I always knew it had something going for it buy the reaction of the so called experts, I was offered a lot of money, but, no explanations that were anything near consistent. So I started doing mass research. I found the actual makers markings on a Japaneseicon web sight and then ran him down from there. Since my last post on this topic, I've found this maker had a special mark for swords not made under the Japanese Empire shrine and mine has that mark, the maker was one of Japans best at that time and quite possibly a celebration sword made for a family named Buken from Small Valley, what ever the heck that means. I have also found a very similar sword but shrine made and a very common style being sold for the asking price of 850,000 yen, i.e. less than $8,000.00 US

The kanji was first read by my former martial arts instructor over ten years ago and much of it still holds today, but, just to be sure it is presently being re-evaluated by an NYU student who studies Japanese. I found the military configuration in a well used book on such. I've been learning a great deal out of this, but, the down side, I have lost a great deal of respect for a lot people who I've known for years. They are worse than the American Nazi collectors. The biggest thing I've found when dealing with the un-known, do your home work, collect the facts and get them verified several times, then "maybe" go to market-SDH