Bruce Pennington

Hello Jpoe. Is that what you go by? We like to have a real first name, or a nickname you go by, for our conversations. We'll need some better photos of the blade to judge it properly. Full length, bare naked blade; full length of the bare tang (nakago) with the brass habaki (collar) removed; a couple of close-ups of the temper line and blade tip. With the limited photos at hand, it mostly looks like a WWII era blade in Japanese officer gunto fittings. It should have a wooden scabbard (saya) with leather cover, but the cover is often missing. You can see photos of complete ones here: 九八式軍刀略式外装 Informality mounting (ohmura-study.net)

Good eye, didn't notice that before! This is the third one I've seen this year mounted that way, though I don't recall what type of fittings the other 2 were. Smith is Yoshiomi, and the Showa stamp should mean the blade was made in '40-41 plus or minus. So if these are late-war fittings, which they seem to be, the blade must have been re-fitted into this. The alternating folds of the tsuka indicate it was Japanese made. Many of the low quality fittings we see from occupied territories have the Chinese style folding, going one direction. I'd guess this was something done in the last year of the war. Working from memory, I believe both Dawson and Fuller have examples of creative variations that this item would fit quite naturally in with.

Judging by the handguard (tsuba), it appears to be a Type 98 Japanese officer sword (gunto). You can see examples, and read about them here: Army commissioned officers Shin-Guntō (Type 98 Guntō) 1938 (ohmura-study.net) The partial stamp at the top is the Showa stamp, an inspection/approval stamp of the Seki Cutlery Manufacturers Association. When the war started expanding in the late '30s, increasing sword demand prompted a rush to produce swords. The general sword industry became alarmed at some poor quality blades hitting the market and aske the Association to start inspecting blades for quality. While likely not traditionally made, blades with this stamp tend to be nice and of good quality. Most blades with dates and this stamp were made in 1940-41.

That's a fascinating bit of information! We have Type 95 gunto made by that company. Now we know who founded it.

Did they have a photo of the whole thing fully assembled? If so, how about posting one, or posting the link so I can go look.

Not a mislead, John, as everyone is just speculating here.

Yes, you would have to advertise it as a Japanese sword replica. If you sold it in that display case, you might get a little more money for it that way.

I have always enjoyed that style RS with the dark brown lacquer .

Great, thanks Steve!

Hope you guys can help me understand this one. Right side is clearly Nagaaki with kao. But the left side says something else, but has the Nagaaki kao, too. Can you tell me what is said on the left side? Trying to figure out why his kao is on both sides:

Not near as spectacular as those, but something nice. On a 1600s Kuniyuki:

Lots of guys recommend antler for removing rust. I think it was in reference to removing it from nakago, not the blade, but I could be wrong on that. I'd personally not use it on the blade. Here's the breakdown on their ranks, from a discussion by Nick Komiya here - Regs for Army Civilians to Carry Swords "Firstly, Gunzoku (軍属) or civilians in military service seems a confusing concept to some, so I’ll need to briefly explain what sort of people they were. There were 4 ranks of civilian grades in the army. 1. Younin (傭人) were hired laborers. For instance, barbers and laundry workers were such civilians. 2. Ko-in (雇員) hired admin helpers for the office (treated as equivalent of a Lance Corporal) . 3. Hanin-kan (判任官), who were civilian equivalents of NCOs, carrying out legal, accounting, machine maintenance and other duties. 4. Koutou-kan (高等官), who comprised the officer class equivalents from lieutenant to general. Such people included teachers of non-military subjects in military schools, interpreters, legal specialists, etc. Finally onto the sword regulations for the people above. There was a revision to the Army Gunzoku uniform regulations in August 1940, so I will simply quote the sword section from that. Koutou-kan were to wear the sword, tassel and sword belt of army officers equivalent in rank. Hanin-kan and Ko-in ranks were to wear an army company grade officer sword, belt and tassel. However, the rear side color of the belt and tassel were to be brown." And after re-reading that, I can see that the Hanin-kan were premitted to use the blue/brown tassel, too.

Wow, that's a new one on me! Wish I could go back and see what hoops they were jumping through at the end of the war to get these gunto made and into the field.

Yes, looks interesting. Something Buddhist on the other side.

Thanks guys! Quite an education on the Ho'nami line of appraisers. Didn't know they existed. Now I'll have to add something about them in the Stamps doc, since these are on blades, and correct the post I have where I called one a "Masamune."

Wow, that's a fascinating saya, all by itself! Two previous numbers, and neither the number on the blade. The first number was actually struck out when they added the second number, which is oddly higher than the number of the blade.

Would enjoy seeing photos of all that, Kevin! Small correction - the blue/brown tassel was Company grade, Lt's & Capt's. The equivalent rank of Gunzoku were allowed to use them, too. So, with the sakura tsuba, you're right, it was probably carried by a Koutou-kan.

Thanks for the links, Franco, that was quite educational! A part of Sword-world I had been unaware of.

Good eye, John, thanks!

Without seeing more of the sword and especially the nakago, it's really not possible to be evaluating this. I don't have any Yoshihisa on file with stamps, so I'd personally appreciate more photos if you can coach the friend on how to get the tsuka off. For the kikusui, it's the first one I've seen using a single line for the river. I do have one other blade with the kikusui on the blade. Unfortunately, I didn't record the source where I found it. Interesting that they are both on fullered blades.

Thanks for digging into this, guys, I appreciate it. I haven't been following the cut test mei for very long, but it sure seems unusual to have 2 tests done on the same blade. If it was a normal practice, you'd think we would see more of this. Of course, @Markus would have seen it, if it was normal.

Even 政広 (Masahiro) 三品 一夫 But badly written with wrong Masa

Sadly, for those of us who study them, we see this often. There were almost 500 smiths working during the war, and it seems that the lists, of any kind, usually only have about 300 names. That leaves 100-200 smiths that are not found on lists. If anyone can find them, it would be @george trotter and @mecox. If they can't, I'd say there's nothing to be found.

Since it's the only one we've seen - no way to tell. We have seen other "Oops" stamps, though, especially on the 95s.

Thanks for the links, Thomas, fascinating! One of the quotes: "You have to understand that a lot of Japanese military items in The Netherlands come from the former colony Indie, now called Indonesia, witch was occupied by the Japanese during WW2. After the war people took a lot of souvenirs home."