I am John McDermott from Inverness in Scotland Uk, I am new to the forum and found my way here via a link in the Japanese sword index. I have a WW2 Gunto and have been trying to get a trying to get a translation of the tang and arsenal stamps. I thought this would be a simple task so I bought a book from Amazon "Kanji fast finder by Laurence Mathews" it was no help to me. Two separate people ( one a Japanese lady) have given two different translations.
1) Takehisa. Seki Nov 1943.
2)Takayama showa Oct 1943 this from the Japanese lady, who said it was old Kanji and couldn't give the "artists name"
3) there seems to be two Nagoya ( double struck) stamps, identified by Dave on here from my test pic, and what may be a Yokosuka ( navy) stamp on the nakago mune which is strange as the fittings are army Gunto.
Well Gents I will attach some pics in the hope that you can help, there is no commercial purpose to this, I would just like to know the makers name and when and where it was made.
Kindest regards John.





