Vai al contenuto

The possible names of the Honjō Masamune holder

Line drawings of the unique hamon of the Honjo Masamune

The Honjō Masamune is the most celebrated sword in Japanese tradition: a masterpiece attributed to Masamune (13th–14th c.), a symbol of the Tokugawa shogunate, and designated a National Treasure in 1939. After Japan’s surrender in 1945–46, the blade was handed over to the Mejiro police station (Tokyo) and entrusted to a U.S. serviceman. In Japanese documents of the time, his name was written as コリーデイバイモ—loosely romanized as “Coldy Bimore.”
That name, however, matches no known serviceman; it is almost certainly an imperfect transliteration (typical of the period) of an English name.

Below I compile and organize the most plausible hypotheses about what might lie behind “Coldy Bimore,” reconstructed from common katakana rendering errors (R/L confusion, B/V, omission of the middle dot between given name and surname, unmarked long vowels, etc.).

In this article I explain how I used ChatGPT 5 to conduct a linguistic and operational inquiry and produce a shortlist of plausible real names.

Method: how the AI worked

  1. Phonetic decoding of the original katakana
    ChatGPT 5 broke コリーデイバイモ into phonetic blocks (ko-rī / de-i / ba-i-mo), highlighting the typical transliteration issues of the era:
    • R/L confusion (same katakana series),
    • absence of the middle dot 「・」 (which separates given name/surname),
    • long vowels often omitted (ムーア → モア),
    • rendering of V/B (Japanese lacks a “v” sound),
    • initials absorbed into the word (e.g., “B.” → ビー → “bi”).
  2. Generating candidates by phonetic similarity
    From korī → Corey/Cory/Cody/Cole/Colby/Colt/Cordy and baimo → B. Moore / Barrymore / Baltimore / Belmore / Blymore / Beamer/Beemer, the AI generated variants ordered by linguistic likelihood.
  3. Reconstructing “rank + initials” segmentation errors
    The AI tested the hypothesis that “Coldy” is actually “Col. D.” (Colonel D.) or “Sgt. D.” / “Cpl D.” joined to B. Moore, then compacted wholesale into katakana.
  4. Operational prioritization
    ChatGPT 5 proposed a shortlist useful for archival research: combinations of given name + surname (and rank) compatible with Tokyo / January 1946 and with logistics functions (turn-ins, liquidations, warehousing).
The original document – source: https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/15406-honjo-masamune-found-well-almost-maybe/page/2/

Direct Analysis of the Original Document via AI

This document is highly useful and confirms two key points:

1) The katakana reading of the name

In the left margin, the string コリーデイバイモ is clearly visible and segments as ko-rī / de-i / ba-i-mo.

  • コリー (korī): compatible with Corey/Cory/Cody/Cole/Colby/Colt/Cordy (R/L merge in Japanese; long vowels often omitted).
  • デイ (dei): very plausibly a phonetic rendering of a spoken initial “D.”
  • バイモ (baimo): a likely rendering of “B. Moore” with no middle dot and with the long vowel in Moore dropped (ムーア → モア), yielding “Bimore.”

2) The military rank

Directly beneath the katakana appears the kanji 軍曹 (gunso), i.e., sergeant.
This strengthens the hypothesis “Sgt. D. B. Moore” (or variants such as Corey/Cody/Colby … B. Moore) and makes it less likely that “Coldy” was actually “Col.” (colonel).

Practical implication

The full string reads as 「コリーデイバイモ 軍曹」 → “Korī Dei Baimo, Sergeant.”
The most plausible mapping is:

[Given name of the Corey/Cody/Cole/Colby/Colt/Cordy family] + “D.” + “B. Moore”
→ hastily compacted into katakana and later romanized as “Coldy Bimore.”

Result: our shortlist of plausible names

Strong hypothesis (highly probable)

This family explains “Bimore” as a deformation of “B. Moore” in katakana.

  1. Cody B. Moore
  2. Colby B. Moore
  3. Cole D. Moore (read together → “Col-D. Moore”)
  4. Colt D. Moore (same mechanism)
  5. Cory B. Moore / Corey B. Moore
  6. Cordy B. Moore

Why these are strong:

  • In Japanese, Moore = ムーア (Mūa); “B. Moore” tends to be ビー・ムーア (Bī Mūa).
    If the dot/space drops, or someone copies hastily, ビー・ムーア → ビムーア / ビモア → “Bimore.”
  • The first element Cody/Colby/Cole/Colt/Cory/Cordy in katakana (コーディー / コルビー / コール / コルト / コーリー / コーディー) can easily be rewritten/re-read as “Coldy” due to indistinct R/L, variable di/ディ renderings, and omitted long vowels.

“Rank + initials” hypothesis (very interesting)

“Coldy” may not be a name at all but “Col. D.” (Colonel D.) or “Cpl D.” / “Sgt D.” misread as a name, and “Bimore” = B. Moore.

  1. Col. D. B. Moore (Colonel D. B. Moore → “Col-D B. Moore” → “Coldy Bimore”)
  2. Sgt. D. B. Moore (Sergeant D. B. Moore; “Sgt.” read/misread)
  3. Cpl D. B. Moore (Corporal)

Why this holds up:

  • In spoken notes of the time, “Col. D. B. Moore” could become コル・ディー・ビー・ムーア, then recopied as コルディ・ビモア → “Coldy Bimore.”

Medium hypothesis (plausible via katakana rendering)

Here “Bimore” reflects real surnames that in katakana sound like ～モア / ～ムア and can be poorly romanized.

  1. Belmore / Bellmore（ベルモア）
  2. Blymore / Brymore / Brimore（ブライモア / ブリモア）
  3. Barrymore（バリモア; truncated/shortened could end up as “Bimore”）
  4. Seymour (シーモア) → less likely to become “Bimore,” but weak “s” + spelling can occasionally mislead
  5. Muir / Moore variants (ムーア / ミュア) → copying without the long vowel can yield モア

Weak hypothesis (less likely but possible mishearing)

Here “Bimore” stems from Beamer/Beemer/Biemer, etc., or “Coldy” from similar names.

  1. Cody Beamer / Beemer / Biemer（コーディー・ビーマー / ビーマー）
  2. Colby Beamer / Beemer（コルビー・ビーマー）
  3. Colden Moore（コールデン・ムーア → “Coldy” by shortening）
  4. Cole Deamer / Deemer（コール・ディーマー → “Coldy Bimore” via mixed recopying）

How we get there (typical error rules of the time)

  • R/L indistinct in Japanese: “Col-” / “Cor-” / “Coh-” can collapse into コル / コー.
  • di / dy: today ディ renders “di,” but historically renderings were less stable; コーディー can end up written/read コルディ.
  • Long vowels (ー) often dropped in recopying: ムーア (Mūa) → モア (Moa) → “more.”
  • Initials with periods (“B.”) read as syllables: ビー; drop dot/space → it sticks to ムーア.
  • Ranks/abbreviations (Col., Cpl., Sgt.) can be interpreted as part of the name.
  • Dictated entries in police/occupation offices in ’45–’46 → segmentation errors were very common.

Mini “shortlist” to check first in U.S. archives

If we had to prioritize unit-roll searches from the period:

  • Cody B. Moore
  • Colby B. Moore
  • Cole D. Moore / Colt D. Moore
  • Cory/Corey B. Moore
  • Cordy B. Moore
  • (rank) D. B. Moore interpreted as a name → “Coldy Bimore”

These maximize compatibility with “Bimore” = B. Moore and with the most likely katakana/romanization errors.

Operational CSV with all variants and queries, ready to be used in archives/datasets.

Tag: