By definition this blade has a showato stamp as has been noted and is showato. It could be the stamp for Seki, the city. Do not confuse Seki in past history and 1930's to 1940's Seki. A vast number of showato swords were produced in that area and in fact it is stated that the majority of mass produced swords produced in Japan in 1930's as a build up to the war were produced in Seki. A showato is a sword that is NOT made with traditional steel(tamahagane) even though it may be folded. To distinguish these blades they were required to have a stamp to show this fact. That rule was established in 1937 but was not fully implemented until 1940. Thus this sword is showato if the small stamp is indeed a showato stamp. I can just see it in the photos. Some of the smiths were good and some not so good. If you look at my post below this one you see what I think is a seki stamp, and I think the blade I show in oil tempered and not a folded blade. From the looks of your blade it does seem to be folded and that is the key here ie tradtional forging process even if done with non traditional steel. David