Old wakizashi by unknown smith

Description: 

I bought this from a reputable dealer in shira-saya for $450. It was in lousy polish, which I cleaned up a bit with uichiko. There is a bite missing out of the kissaki, two cuts in the edge and several contact points on the mune near the center of percussion. The hamon appears to be choji-ba (anyone's guess the hada) and the boshi and yokote can barely be seen.

The enhanced close-ups of the mei are a blown-up copy of the mei photo with my observations in marker. What I can see in person is recorded--there may be more, but the signature is somewhat damaged. The area marked 'A' is damaged to the point where not much can be made of the character, and in area 'B' the mark disappears off the edge of the tang and reappears farther up, suggesting the tang has been made smaller at some point.

AttachmentSize
Parry marks (?)48.72 KB
mei96.7 KB
Top of mei with enhancement58.61 KB
Center of mei, enhanced59.82 KB
Bottom of mei, enhanced68.77 KB
Shira-saya62.24 KB
Left side of kissaki68.06 KB
Right side of kissaki55.46 KB
Right side of blade93 KB
Left side of blade77.27 KB
A bit of choji-ba shining through52.59 KB

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