Ian B3HR2UH

Barry were you on the red wine last night ? To my mind this piece looks to be of low quality .In answer to your question Greg I think that the factors influencing price aside from the signature are, quality of workmanship primarily, also the materials used ,age , condition and rarity. Ian Brooks

Don't tread carefully here , run away quickly . Ian Brooks

It looks like a variation of san bon sugi to me John . Ian Brooks

Matthew , do NOT touch the brasso , this piece would never have had a polished brass finish on it . You will wreck it if you do that . Hasten very slowly here . Ian Brooks

Steves translation is about as definite as you are going to get . Does anyone know if you have the officers name , Umesaki , whether there are sources in Japan where you can get details of officers who had the family name Umesaki . Ian brooks

Chris , I remain pretty sceptical about the sword on Ohmuras site with the "silver" fittings . If the fittings are silver plated you would expect to see some wear on the plating yet there is none here . Perhaps they are solid silver but that seems unlikely. What appears to be recent binding only heightens my doubts . Ohmura certainly has some fantastic items on his site and if this is original it would of course be really unique . Ian brooks

Henri , . Congratulations on attempting the translation and on being successful . There are so many people on this board who wont even try . You have shown that it is not all that difficult if you apply yourself . Ian Brooks

Bruce , unless I am colour blind every naval sword that I have ever handled has a chocolate brown ito . I don't recall ever seeing one that was black ! Ian Brooks

Hi Geoff , it is I think an unlikely story . New Britain was firmly in Japanese hands in 1942 and wasn't invaded till much later . When they did surrender in 1945 the General in charge, Lt Gen Imamura surrendered to Vernon Sturdee an Australian . Ian brooks

Hi Steve , did you buy this in Australia or import it . Ian brooks

Hi Chris , if I was looking for a smiths name I would use Robinson . He has three pages with about 100 kanji on each page . I would simply scan the page until I found the one that matched the character I was looking for . Most would be found on the first two pages . If I thought it was close to what was on my sword but was unsure I would look to see if it was a variation shown in Yumoto . I would think that at least 90 % of characters used in smiths names ( here I mean the two characters that are typically the smiths name , not provinces towns titles dates etc ) could be found in Robinsons table. If I had no luck then I would look down the list of Characters in Hawley . Once you find the smiths name then you simply look him up in Hawley which should give you most of the additional information that is in the signature ie province title town etc. If Hawley doesn't have the information then I would start using other sources such as Nelson which Barry suggests. Good luck. Ian

Hi Chris , I think you are going about translating in a difficult way by counting strokes . Both John Yumoto and Basil Robinsons books have tables of the commonly found characters and are easy to use . Both tables have Kane and Waka in them . For me they are the smart place to start your searching . Ian brooks

This was a sensible question that deserved a sensible answer . Good on you Guido for treating it seriously . I have seen a number of swords where the lines are really sloppy which doesn't give you much confidence in the rest of the polish . Ian Brooks

Ken if you think that there is a good chance that this is genuine then the asking price is a bargain . You are right to be super sceptical Peter. Ian Brooks

I am with Steve on this . Everytime I read about a short gunto being described as a crew gunto it gets up my nose . If you look at the pieces that Ohmura describes as crew gunto they are much shorter than this piece and most others that are described as crew gunto . Most are described as crew gunto , in my opinion ,by dealers hoping to part the gullible from their money . Ian Brooks

And I have seen one Kai Gunto with a same or sharkskin scabbard that was in original condition and that had brown lacquer . This sword had a blade made at the tenshozan forge and was surrendered by an Admiral Nomiya to Brigadier Wood near Balikpapan.on Borneo Ian Brooks

Neil , years ago I had a sword with the same pattern latch on it which also had the same staple shaped appendage on it . Ian brooks

After spending a couple of days on the bottom of Sydney harbour they raised the mini sub and found a sword inside .The Sydney Morning Herald of the 8th July 1942 describes the sword as " it is 36.5 inches long with a slightly curved blade of 27 inches. The hilt is bound with silken cord with bronze or gold inlay .The copper guard is inscribed and is shaped to represent the rising sun . The sword has three coverings its scabbard is enclosed in a leather sheath which in turn is completely covered by a silk lined tasselled purple cloth . The officers initials are printed on the cloth." The following day there is a photograph of the sword in the paper and from what can be seen it looks like a Kai gunto with a leather cover over the saya . I suspect that at some stage the leather cover has been taken off and the same or lacquer has disintegrated at this time . Perhaps someone put the current finish on to cover or protect the wood . I saw General Imamuras sword about 40 years ago when it was still owned by Sir Vernon Sturdee's widow Lady Sturdee . The habaki was interesting as it was gold foil with the characters Goshi on it which I think translates as Imperial gift . Lady Sturdee had a second Shin Gunto also with a general grade tassel on it . Which one was Imamuras is hard to say , perhaps they both were . Ian Brooks

You know Geraint but are , I think , too polite to say .Wherever he is now poor old Gassan Sadamitsu would probably die of shame if he learnt that people were attributing this piece too him. Ian Brooks

I agree with Chris the O seppa and the visible part of the tsuba have clearly been overcleaned . The mimi ( or rim ) looks an even lighter colour as it has been cleaned back to brass. Ian Brooks

Jim the Age newspaper of the 27th of January 1893 contains a reference to these swords the guts of which is that the Victorian Defence department purchased 50 swords from the Japanese "for use of the officers of the cadet corps ". The cost was one pound each as opposed to 3 pounds for 'those of English manufacture " Ian Brooks

Hi Jim , local collector Donald Barnes has one of these swords which from memory is illustrated in Fuller and Gregorys second book . regards Ian

Ben I admire that you have the guts to post an opinion that is contrary to those that have gone before you , but you are dead wrong . Find a teacher or give the game away . Ian Brooks

Sean , I would definitely add Robinsons book The Arts of the Japanese Sword to your first group . This is essential reading if you ever want to read the signiatures . Too many members here cant do this and they also need to spend a few dollars and get this book . Enjoy your collecting . Ian Brooks

Thanks Steve, it was an enjoyable challenge trying to translate this . I appreciate your corrections and additions Ian brooks