Bruce Pennington

I see it now. The edges between the star points seem more rounded on this one, which threw me off. Here's have they "normally" look:

I only have 1 other zoheito with the "SE" stamp, posted by Pevan at Warrelics. His photo isn't clear enough to see if there is a hamon.

Posting photos. Alex, I've seen the "N" in diamond only on dirks and once on a Navy Type 19 dress sword. Starting to sound like a shop that only made navy edged weapons, but we don't know a name for the shop.

Thanks for the added photos, Braden! Your gunto is full of stuff that I track! Serial number is "NO 474" on the mune (back edge of nakago). That "144" is probably put there by a fittings shop. Are the other fittings, tsuba, seppe, etc, stamped with the number? The "W" is a mid-way inspection mark found on several blades of 1942 and '43. The 2 stamps on the kabutogane are unknown shop stamps - @Kiipu. Thomas may correct me, but I don't think we've seen those before. The single one on the other side is the inspector mark of the Tokyo 1st Army Arsenal.

Thanks for posting these, Steve! Any chance there is a small stamp above the Koa Isshin mei?

The large Seki stamp was a civilian organization- Seki Culery Manufacturers Association. These blades were sold to both civilians and military. Yours went to the military.

The blade is in Type 98 Japanese officer fittings, and the blue and brown tassel was used by captains and lieutenants. Your sword is not dated, but from the small stamp at the top I can tell you it was made between 1935 and 1942, with the most likely dates of 1940 and 41. You can read about the Type 98 on this website. Lots of history and pictures: Japanese officer sword-type 98 Good site for care and cleaning: Japanese sword care guide

Japanese Sword Care Guide The sword as a family heirloom and a valuable piece of world history. Disregard anyone who says that it’s not worth taking care of. People’s lives were given for their countries, and these swords represented that. The discussion in the link above about that stamp is pretty good, but it came before we made new discoveries about its origin. The large Seki stamp was used by the Seki Cutlery Manufacturers Association. It was a civilian organization, not a military one that was inspecting blades to ensure quality and weed out poor quality swords.

That thought occurred to me last night as I was thinking about it, too. With the resurgence of the samurai styled swords of the 1930s there was a massive demand. I suspect there were a company or two that started mass producing these civil tsuba to meet that demand.

You can read all about the Type 95 here: Japanese NCO Gunto - Type 95 - Ohmura

Brden, I would appreciate a picture of the full serial number on the back edge of the tang, please! Good reference for sword care: Sword Care Guide Here’s a more comprehensive Mantetsu article: South Manchurian Railway - Mantetsu

Yes, the tassel was for Feild grade officers - Majors and Colonels. Unusual to be on an NCO sword. It could have been added after the war but it is possible that an officer bought the sword during the periods of sword shortages. Officers were permitted by regulations to rent or purchase NCO gunto during those times.

@Scogg - one NCO in there

It is the Showa stamp of the civilian Seki Cutlery Manufacturers Association, used from 1935 to 1942, with the massive majority of them found in ‘40 and ‘41.

The answer to both is yes! Like I was discussing with Thomas,, we have no documentation to prove that the great leaf pattern was tied to the Gunzoku like the Sakura and bamboo patterns depicted in Dawson and Ohmura, but they could be. But officers were also allowed to use civilian blades ref fitted for the war. The fitting came in various degrees of completion.