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Kai Gunto single hanger


IJASWORDS

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I have seen a number of Kai Gunto, (in person and in photos ) with only one ashi, and no signs of any second hanger ever being present . 

Is this common ? Was it an option ? 

Photo of one I own , in all other respects original and high quality . 

post-3858-0-21000600-1565147031_thumb.jpg

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There was one on ebay with a wakizashi mounted, looked late war made. If memory serves me right I recall reading that near the end of the war they stopped adding the second haikan. If it has obvious signs of later war make it wouldn't be a big leap to say it was an original single haikan example? Harder to say because the quality of Kai Gunto didn't drop off as radically as the Shin Gunto.

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Neil,

Richard Fuller found the same phenomena, and speculated that they were prefered by Naval land forces workng with the army. He has another variation where a navy gunto is mounted in leather combat cover, 1 haikan, and even has white same'.

 

attachicon.gifIMG_2557.jpg

 

 I had similar thoughts myself, but without a reference was wary of posting. All to many variant swords get labelled as NLF, but in this case I think you are right on the button.

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Hi Tom, went back about 19 pages and found it . I remember back then it was a "stunner "! It would be great to see it re-posted here . On a side issue , I compared your blade to my Kotani Yasunori, and very similar in construction . However the cutting of the mei , and the hand that did it look different . Especially comparing the cutting of the date . Just an observation , and only my amateurish attempt at comparison .  

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Hi Neil,

 

It appears at least one large UK dealer shares the same general view as Fuller.

 

A current Kai-Gunto for sale advert states " You can tell this is a genuine WW2 Japanese Naval Landing Forces Officers Kai-Gunto because it only has a single ashi (suspension loop) plus has a leather combat cover."

 

Of course its unknown whether in this case, Fuller's view has simply been adopted or the dealers opinion is based on his own knowledge/experience.

 

FYI.

 

Rob McL

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Hi Neil,

 

It appears at least one large UK dealer shares the same general view as Fuller.

 

A current Kai-Gunto for sale advert states " You can tell this is a genuine WW2 Japanese Naval Landing Forces Officers Kai-Gunto because it only has a single ashi (suspension loop) plus has a leather combat cover."

 

Of course its unknown whether in this case, Fuller's view has simply been adopted or the dealers opinion is based on his own knowledge/experience.

 

FYI.

 

Rob McL

 

 For me the leather combat cover would be the clincher, a sure sign of a sword intended to be taken regularly into combat. Sometimes they seem to have taken whatever was to hand, and would do the job.

post-2218-0-37989300-1565515541_thumb.jpg

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