The piece is signed: 中原真人恭連作之 which translates to Nakahara shinjin kyourin saku no (I think – again, I am having some health issues that haven’t let me do much Japanese study in entirely too long), and is listed as Haynes number H 03716.0 . The piece has old green papers, but I could not find an exemplar mei in any of the usual suspect books I have on hand (but then again I am on steroids at the moment which makes it hard to research carefully).
I like the piece but am torn between just leaving it alone or trying to address this issue in some way because it is a little disturbing to me. The piece is made of iron and measures 84.8mm(H) X 79.0mm(W) X 7.2mm(T, seppa area), and weighs in at 169.0g.