Bruce Pennington

Hi Kevin! Just curious, is your screenname from the movie? Loved that one! For starters, a civil blade fitted with leather cover for the war. Looks like a wakizashi (cutting edge shorter than 24"). Is the tassel all brown?

Marcin, The civil swords refitted for the war came in all sorts of combinations. I've seen old blades in: full military koshirae; military koshirae, but civil tsuka; military koshirae, with civil menugi; full civil fittings, leather cover; civil fittings, military tsuka; field saya, civil tsuka, army menugi; etc.

Luke, I tried finding the Warrelics post this came from, but couldn't. Maybe Thomas - @Kiipu - or @IJASWORDS = can help you. While the letter from the polisher had some interesting insight to wartime blade production, he wasn't correct about the source of the Showa stamp. My thought is that, as a polisher, he simply saw blades at the arsenal with the Showa and anchor stamps and assumed they were put there by arsenal inspectors. We now know, from a wartime magazine article, that the Showa stamp was an inspector of the Seki Cutlery Manufacturers Association. Thomas, he's referencing this post:

The fastener method is quite common. That kabutogane is a bit unusual, but knowing what we do about the late war effect on supplies, it doesn't bother me. I agree, it's likely late war. As to who carried it, it's not possible to know. We've seen it carried by active officers, NCOs, and Gunzoku.

Thanks Sam. An odd one. I have several of his blades with numbers, but they are 3 and 4 digit and follow sequentially. As Gilda Radner said - It's always somethin'!

Here's one of FB. "Kill the enemy, Serve the nation", with Buddhist symbols of peach and pearl:

Con, where is the "80?"

Interesting theory, Marcin. It would normally be considered a fittings assembly number, but supporting your idea is the fact that the number is not on the other pieces (only one side of the seppa are shown. It would help to see the other side, too). I have two blades on file with an "8" on the nakagojiri. A Kanemichi and a Hidetoshi: Filed under "Unknown". I've been assuming they are a shop logo, but your idea is just as plausible.

Kaigunto with white samegane and army colored ito. At this O'Gallerie Auction. Blade is a Seki stamped Yoshinaga.

Ah yes. I've heard of the nanban blades. And I should have said "imported" because I don't know that it was Western steel they used.

Ha, and even that is messy! We know that some makers, way back, used Western steel. Yet, today, no one would be able to tell which blades had it. So, they would be labeled as nihonto by collectors. It's messy. I will often just say "traditionally made" or "non-traditionally made".

I've never heard the history of how the collecting world started using "gendaito" to mean Showa-era nihonto, but it's probably a short-hand way of saying that.

Mike, Welcome to NMB! You can read up on your Navy sword (kaigunto) on Ohmura's site: Naval Officer Swords Care and cleaning tips: Japanese Sword Care - Japaneseswordindex.com

Thanks Marcin. I have some NCO 95s with black spots. I'll try this method and let you know how it comes out.

I hate it when auctions don't show the nakago. Looks like someone recently did a refurb/rebuild.