A Gunto In The Family! (Help Please)

[Katsujinken]

Imagine my surprise as a student of nihonto when I only recently learned that one of my grandfathers brought a sword back from the war, which has been in the care of an uncle for some time.

 

It definitely looks like a gunto to me (it's certainly mounted as one). I see no stamps. There is an angular chiseled signature, which looks like most of what I've seen from WW2, and remnants of some painted characters on the tang. Nagasa is about 26 inches.

 

Can anyone draw any further conclusions (or translations...) from these images? Thanks so much.

[Mark]

yoshichika 1944 so late war. machine made. painted number is to keep parts together when assembled in a factory looks like 246, check the other parts they may be stamped with the same number.  real sword, take care of it

[Katsujinken]

Is this the Yoshichika in question?

 

Yoshichika (良近), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Tōkyō – „Minamoto Yoshichika“ (源良近), „Minamoto Yoshichika no saku“ (源良近之作), „Minamoto Yoshichika kore o kitae“ (源良近鍛之), civilian name „Mori Hisasuke“ (森久助), his blades were famous for their supreme sharpness, most of them went to the imperial guards, he also made so-called „sunobe-tō“ (素延べ刀), non-traditional swords of modern steel which were forged from one block of steel.

 

If the blade is machine made, where does Yoshichika fit in to the equation?

[Dave R]

"Machine made" is one of those shorthand terms that gets thrown around and covers a lot of different production methods. To a large extent it reflects the lack of interest in anything not a Nihonto on the part of some collectors.

 A number of smiths produced both Nihonto and Showato, due most likely to a big demand for blades and limited quantities of tamahagane available to them. There are a number of threads here discussing Wartime blade production, my own conclusion is that rather less is know about it than collectors like me would like. 

[BANGBANGSAN]

昭和十九年 Showa 19 year,1945.

Showa seki smith 吉近Yoshichika，Civilan name 吉岡鐵次郎

[Stephen]

99.9% of the time the chippy mei as posted are factory made, (why we say machine made) by a factory worker who would chip out any name he liked!

[Grey Doffin]

Showa 19 is 1944, not 1945.

Grey

[Katsujinken]

99.9% of the time the chippy mei as posted are factory made, (why we say machine made) by a factory worker who would chip out any name he liked!

That was my conclusion as well. So it seems unlikely this is the same Yoshichika from the passage I pasted above.

 

Thanks everyone for the help. Is it possible to tell if this was for the army/navy/etc.?

[Stephen]

looks Army

[Katsujinken]

Does the lack of any kind of stamp mean anything one way or the other?

[PNSSHOGUN]

Does the lack of any kind of stamp mean anything one way or the other?

Debatable, towards the end of the war signatures and stamps fell by the wayside in some factories, it seems.

 

Factory made blades have telltale features which must be taken into consideration if no stamps or signatures are present.

[Katsujinken]

Interesting, thank you! And just so I'm clear, would this be an example of a blade made by hand / forged by the Showa smith Yoshichika? http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/11593-minamoto-yoshichika-shin-gunto/

[Bruce Pennington]

Michael,

 

There were 9 differing ways to make blades during the war, all of them requiring hands-on work.  I think you are asking if this was made via the "traditional" way, which means using Japanese tamahagane steel, folded and hammered by hand.  Like the guys stated above, it is not likely.  The smith COULD have used old style hammers and folding, but used non-Japanese steel.  He could have used a hydraulic hammer and any kind of steel.  These are almost impossible to determine.  Inspection by a skilled evaluator can increase your chances, but even they have been known to be fooled by a high quality blade.

[SwordGuyJoe]

You missed one of the most important parts: Quenching in water.

- Also the use of a powered hammer does not excluding it from being true Nihonto. Just ask Yoshihara Yoshindo and a LOT of other smith's.

[Katsujinken]

Thanks to all. This was very helpful (and FAST!).