Bruce Pennington

This is quite an interesting Type 95!  Suya/Tokyo 1st 153713.  The tsuka was wrapped over the aluminum.  Ito looks like the stuff we see on late war swords.  Wear & tear appear to be wartime aged appropriate.  That tassel looks pre-WWII, though I'm not studied on those.

Found on this ebay sale.

10 hours ago, mecox said:

@Bruce Pennington    my understanding with both NA and KO stamps: 

 Na / Ho (名/ホ): externally made blades collected by Nagoya inspectors, then delivered to Kokura Arsenal, and “processed” presumably polished, in Factory No.1.  Often sent elsewhere for mounting.  This stamp combination started late 1941, peaked in 1942, and declined in 1943 and not seen in 1944.

Thanks, Mal.  Thought it was something like that.  And you beat me to the punch on the mune stamp practice peaking in 1942.  I checked my charts to see if it was used predominantly on star-stamped blades, but they were found on non-star blades and Seki stamped blades just as often.

Yes, what Conway said.  According to @mecox, the blade was processed by both the Nagoya Army Arsenal and inspected at the Kokura 1st Factory, if I have that right.

Did you get a chance to remove the brass habaki and check for a star stamp?

@Scogg - Sam, want to transfer this thread over to the Military forum?

1 hour ago, cookiemonstah47 said:

 

Hi Bruce,

 

This one is interesting because it has two distinct and elaborately done kanji on the spine of the tang. They are not arsenal marks. Not something I see every day. (Especially for $500 USD.) People discard things, so sad.

I would truly appreciate a photo of those kanji on the mune! Please!

Good stuff, guys, thanks!  I'm familiar with Hanwei and Paul Chen products, but don't have his mei down to memory or recognition.  

Didn't I hear his operation shut down a while back?

Anyone know about this reproduction maker?  Fortunately, it's being sold as a reproduction on this Auction.

I tried looking them up, but not finding anything.

Just a few of the many photos

Can you slide the habaki (brass collar) off to see if there is a star stamp underneath?  Yoshitada was an RJT qualified smith.  Some of his blades had a star, some had other stamps.

Hi Dave,

Here is your guy:

"ICHINONJI (一文字), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Gifu – “Ichimonji” (一文字), real name Endō Masayuki (遠藤公之), born October 23rd 1890, he worked as a guntō smith."

The stamp is the Showa stamp, used by the civilian Seki Cutlery Manufacturers Association between 1935 and 1942.  Most dated blades with the stamp were made in 1940-41.

Another type 95, a copper,owned by Sam, @Scogg, and posted here:

That’s great, Sam!

Thanks guys!  That is the earliest "stamp" I have recorded, then.  Doubt it was a single stamp, but you know what I mean.

11 hours ago, eternal_newbie said:

 

That is indeed a mon - the kikkō (tortoise-shell) mon, from which its name derives.

Thank you, Rohan, and please bear another question - photographed in 1948, but the blade is much older, right?  Age approximation?

A small matter, but I've started noticing variations on the snap arrangments of these leather covers.  Some have one, some two, some three.  Of the covers with 3, even those have variations:

Posted by @Dick Grande HERE

Doc,

It would be cool to see shots of the box and letter, too!  

Waiting to see the nakago (tang), with everyone else.  Here's some good care tips in the meantime:

Japanese Sword Care - Japaneseswordindex.com

I would call it very dark brown. But again, I don’t have it in hand either. There are black ones, and while they are not as common, there does not seem to be any significance to them, unless everything else has been painted black. We have many example of those. But even those, we do not know the significance.

Excellent presentation, Brett, love it!

On a side note, can you tell if that is a kamon near the nakagojiri?

Charles, I hope you can get a refund unless you just want to use this as a decorative wall hanger piece.

Everything is wrong about this. But I will list some things:

The handle is brass, but the Japanese used copper and aluminum, never brass. The stamps on the handle are horribly wrong. The Japanese did not put flags and other marks on the copper collar call a habaki.  The Fuller groove starts too far down the blade.  And the screw and nut through the handle are the wrong style.

We've all read how the order outlawing the wearing of swords, and the following efforts to Westernize Japan's military, decimated the sword making industry.  Working from memory, so forgive me if I'm off, but do I recall there were only 7 sword smiths operating when Japan decided to go back to samurai styled blades?

My point being, since collectors often increase the value of items that are rare, wouldn't blades made by those smiths, before the big push to train new smiths to increase production, be worth a pretty penny and highly collectable?

Just wondering.

Yeah, that hand drawing of the Hiro stamp is pretty bad.  Hard to say what they were actually seeing when they did it.

It's a beauty, Justin!  What a great sword to own.

March 2026 Update now available for the Stamps of the Japanese Sword.  Download here: Stamps of the Japanese Sword - NMB Download Section

What's new:
-- Navy Tsuba with "Gunto Houkoku" "Serve the Country with Military Swords". It was the slogan of the government program to procure civilian swords for the war effort.
-- Stamped mei - Kanemune
-- Kikumon - new variant added in this section lacking better way to classify it - Botan/Peony Flower on a 26th Generation Kanenori. Significance unknown
-- Kokuin - Kiyonobu and Kanenori added
-- Kakihan - 4 added: Enshin, 1905; Masatsugu; Sukenao, 1696; Yukihide, 1853
-- Blades with both Kakihan & Kokuin - Naotane, used personal kakihan + kokuin of city the blade was made in
-- Appraisors - Ho' nami Kotoku added
-- Koshirae stamps - Itabashi Supervisory Unit, Army Ordinance Admin HQ
-- Unknowns - Circled Yama; Circled kana
-- Type 19 shop logo - 2 added.

Enjoy

14 hours ago, John C said:

; listed as a branch of Osaka arsenal.

That might explain it.  As to the "8" coming from that branch of the Osaka arsenal .... a slight possibility, I guess, but both blades were made by Gifu, Seki smiths, and found in army fittings, so I'm thinking it might need another explanation, like a shop marking.  Verdict is still out, though.

On 7/2/2022 at 5:52 PM, BANGBANGSAN said:

The "8" mark maybe from Hiroshima Arsenal 

 

 

Trystan,

What document is this page from?

4 minutes ago, vajo said:

Izumo Ju Tadayoshi was a swordsmith in Shimane prefecture

Is it this guy (only one listed by Sesko)

"TADATSUNA (忠綱), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Tottori – “Hōki Ōhara Tadatsuna” (伯耆大原忠綱), “Tadatsuna” (忠綱), real name Ōhara Chūjirō (大原忠次郎), born March 20th 1902, he studied from about 1935 under Moriwaki Masataka (森脇正孝) (see picture right)"

Another late war, unlisted RJT smith - Izumo jū Tadatsuna saku - 出雲住忠綱作, May 1945, found on ebay.  Sesko has one, from Tottori, which is a very small prefecture right next to Shimane (Izumo), so might be the guy.