Bruce Pennington

Any chance of a date on the other side? All my matsu blades on file are dated.\ How about a shot or 2 of the fittings, also? @george trotter @mecox @Kiipu

That's a big find, Geoff! Thanks for the pics! The matsu stamps was originally thought to be specific to Akihisa and Munetoshi, but we have found 3 other smiths (now 4) with the mark. All dated blades were made in 1942 & 1943. Several of them are star stamped. Sesko shows a Masakane, and says he was RJT. The Japaneseswordindex.com doesn't have a Masakane on the RJT list, but that has happened before. "MASAKANE (正兼), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Ibaraki – “Jōyō Kasama-jū Minamoto Masakane kore o saku” (常陽笠間住源正兼作之), “Jōshū-jū Minamoto Masakane kore o saku” (常州住源正兼作之), real name Takano Kinjirō (高野金次郎), born February 23rd 1900, student of the 1st gen. Masakatsu (正勝), he worked as rikugun-jumei-tōshō, kihin no retsu (Akihide), First Seat at the 6th Shinsaku Nihontō Denrankai (新作日本刀展覧会, 1941)"

That's a nice one, Sam! Be careful with putting your finger in the leather loop. I have one that broke on me after doing it a few times. Some of the stamps can be dates, but I don't think yours are, just inspection marks. I could be wrong, though. Best to wait for @Kiipu, or one of the other guys that study these.

Nice one posted by @matthewbrice ebay sale, mentioned here:

Any stamps above the mei?

What happened to the photo?

An update: Bob powdered the tsuba, same writing on both sides and got the full number: 軍刀報國第四二六号 Guntou Houkoku Dai Yon-hyaku nijū-roku Dai "Serve the Country with Military Swords" No. 426 Confirmation from Akira Komiya: "Yes, the numbering combined with Houkoku clearly makes it a sword paid for by donations to the navy. Probably intended to go to the first round of newly drafted reserve officers? Although you may have already seen it, here is a link to a famous wartime newsreel on the sending off of the first round of college students joining the military held in October, 1943: https://www2.nhk.or.jp/school/watch/...05402860_00000"

Late to the conversation here, sorry. All the parts look World War II era, to me. Never seen anything like that tsuba design. The sakura and other craftsmanship on it look high-quality. I’ve seen silvered tsuba and blackened ones. So that doesn’t bother me. I’ve just never seen a pattern like that on one before. If you ask me, it was a serious custom job.

Go through the Ohmura site that Marcin posted a link for. It shows all the WWII swords. The 95s and 98s were Army. Navy used the Type 97 kaigunto. There were also dress swords called Type 8/19. Prices vary considerably. Low end, with swords in poor condition - around $600-900 USD; good-excellent condition - $900-1,400; kaigunto and Army swords with traditional blades - $1,400-6,000.

Thanks Brian!

Something new has popped up over on this Wehrmacht-awards Thread. (page 2 of the thread). Bob, "Bobl" posted this kaigunto tsuba marked with 軍刀報國第四 Gunto Hokoku No. 4 Military Sword to Serve the Nation, No. 4 According to Akira Komiya, it was either marked on a sword that had been bought up in the drive to acquire civil swords for the war, called "軍刀報國, “Serve the Country with Military Swords” or the gunto was "acquired with public donations for issuing to the mass produced reserve officers after the government cancelled the deferral of military service granted to college students and students in other institutions of higher education in October, 1943. .. The navy called weapons acquired by donated funds as 報國号, Houkoku-gou, “Serve the Country”. In the army, such equipment acquired by donated funds were called 愛國号, Aikoku-go, “Love of Country”. I've added it to the next Stamps doc.

Wow, that is one unique sword! I’m sure you’re a proud to own it.

What happened to the "Reveal Hidden Contents" button?

Yes, even if the second hanger were original, the set wouldn't be worth $5,000 USD on the market! That's twice the price of a full Type 94 with a gendai blade in it.

The paint are numbers - 326?, and were put there during the production process to keep all the fitted parts together.

By the look of the paint underneath, I'd agree the haikan was not original. Nice set of fittings, though. Would you mind displaying the second haikan, and showing how it comes apart? We had a discussion about these and the various ways they were built:

This should be your guy: "KANEHIDE (兼英), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Gifu – “Kanehide” (兼英), real name Kanematsu Akira (兼松晃), born Novemver 24th 1915, he worked as a guntō smith"

Second time I've seen a tsuba with the 3-5-3 kiri, this week! Don't know the significance.

Excellent, thanks Ian!

A nice one with Buddhist symbology, posted by @Charliebrown HERE.

Just a side-note: We don't know why, but the high-end Rinjis are seen in the latter years of the war. They were invented in 1938, produced from 1940 onward, but they really didn't seem become popular until '43 and later. That is where you see the nice custom jobs appearing, and most of them with star-stamped RJT blades in them.

Ian, Does the mei have a kao at the end? If so, would you mind posting the full nakago for my files?

Yes, that is more likely, thank you. These are from an auction house, so best I have. I just checked some other Kaneharu on file and they match pretty well.

"Army gunto always have white rayskin, and Navy kaigunto always have black rayskin." We've seen a couple of kiagunto recently with white same'. I started a thread to track them, but have forgotten to follow up. I just saw another over at Leo Monson's house. Next week, I'll get photos and add to this post. Also, have recently seen Army gunto with black rayskin. Here is one of them, posted by @kotkinjs1 This one posted by @PNSSHOGUN

What do you think, guys? Thanks! Maybe Kanemichi?