Bruce Pennington

The top one likely holds an actual tanto, right? Be nice to see some photos!

And the faintest Saka stamp just before! Hello Deborah! This Nagamitsu (there were a couple of them during the war) made quality blades. He was qualified by the RJT program and many of his blades were traditionally made. Can we get full-length photos of the nakago (tang), both sides? There may be a faint "star" stamp above the name, too. Also, many of us live vicariously through other peoples swords and would love to see the fittings as well.

Wow, John, don't really know. It's not anything I recognize. Might be a shop stamp, too.

Here's an all black one posted by @Ooitame

Seems legit to me, too. You see a lot more variation in Nagoya 95s than you see in the Tokyo gunto.

Wow, that’s pretty unique!

Any idea what that square is at the bottom? It's square like a shrine seal.

Howard, The likely reason no one has commented is that no one has any idea what that mark is from, or why it's there. It's not the only mark, either. There is another smaller mark, horizontal just at the top of the ana. There are 3 other marks around the area. They almost seem intentional, and the lowest one has the appearance of the "pitchfork" portion of the Gifu stamp, but they are all too tiny, in my opinion to be stamps.

That's a unique one, John, thanks! Fairly straight blade, attributed to Sue Mihara school (what, Koto?). If so, they've been using these dots for quite some time, not just a WWII era practice. I've seen single dots on older blades, but this is the first 5-group I've seen on one. I'll file it for sure.

Hi Dan, I'd hate to bother the seller if you aren't going to buy, but maybe you could approach him with the idea that the sword experts you are talking with are requesting photos of the nakago of both swords? I would really appreciate them for the files. I have 5 other souvenir with the all-Navy tsuka and Army saya, so it's not uncommon. The kaigunto on the wooden table is likely a late-war kaigunto. I have seen many of these. Souvenirs, when identified properly normally sell around $450.

Second time I have heard such a story. Could be true considering the number of planes the Japanese sent after ships. It is quite nice looking! Be sure to avoid touching the blade with fingers. The skin oils can make permanent stains in the steel. I have a Type 95 NCO with permanent prints from some previous owner.

Ok, thanks. So, it remains a mystery.

Those are great, David, thank you! @Kiipu I haven't charted the blades with the "M/W", but looking over the files, it's clear they were used in earnest after the Army took control of all sword production in 1942. The stamp is seen on Mantetsu blades from the beginning of production in 1942, through the first quarter of 1944 On signed blades, we see it from Spring 1943 through Spring 1944 Yoshiharu (11 blades) Spring '43 - 4 blades Autumn '43 - 2 Spring '44 - 3 Takehisa (10 blades) Autumn '43 - 8 blades Spring '44 - 2 Tenshin 1945 - 1 blade With the exception of the Tenshin blade, it's interesting to note that all the stamped blades use the seasonal notations on the date, including the Mantetsu. Obviously, they are seen on Type 19s and Type 95s, but I have no dates for those.

Sorry to hijack your post, Steve! Sesko has 2 Kanesada listed for WWII: KANESADA (兼定), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Gifu – “Kanesada” (兼定), real name Okada Sadao (岡田定男), born September 9th 1905, he worked as a guntō smith and died September 1st 1966, ryōkō no jōi (Akihide) KANESADA (兼定), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Gifu – “Kanesada” (兼定), real name Ōno Hiromi (大野広美), he studied at Watanabe Kanenaga´s (渡辺兼永) place Watanabe Kanenaga Nihontō Tanren Juku (渡辺兼永日本刀鍛錬塾) and worked as a guntō smith So the one on the left is Okada Kanesada. Can anyone translate the blade on the right? Slough lists a Furukawa Kanesada, and this sort of looks like him. Slough lists, in English, several of his mei. If I could get this one, it may match one of them.

Thanks John, can I get a clear shot of those? Also how about the date side, please?

I have several Kanesada on file. Kanji style seems to vary considerably with him, so this wouldn't surprise me.

You bet, thanks!

I don't have any Kaneyasu blades that are stamped (yet?). But yours doesn't match the Kanemichi nor Kanenao on file. I found this other Kaneyasu. Not exactly the same, but clearly both mei played loosely with the "yasu". You could be right Mal. Where's @SteveM?

Sam, Haven't seen one exactly like that, but have seen quite a variety of such marks (think they have a name). They were done to tighten up the ana for a closer fit to the blade.

I have 4 of his that are star-stamped. 2 Don't give views that would show any stamping, and the other 2: a '43 with a NA on the mune; and a '45 with a Seki on the mune. The other 3, without star, are: a '41 with NA; '42 with Na Ho on mune; and a '45 with Seki.

I didn't want to agree with John, but after looking at 6 other Nagahisa mei and kao, I see some inconsistencies. This one differs in many ways, but here are 3 that are all the same on the filed ones, but differ from this one: 1. The right "shoulder" of this kanji, on all but the OP, is bent or lopped off, whereas it's square on the OP kanji 2. The upper left of this kanji, on all but the OP uses a small "dink", not an elongated line like the OP 3. The kao is quite close, but on all the filed kao, the 3 prongs on top are small and the right-most prong is long, whereas the OP prongs are the same size. These items on all the filed nakago do not vary, so I'd say this is a good gimei, at least for the cut test mei.

Dang! Good catch, Trystan! I originally had this down (possibly from you?) in the Stamps doc as "特 = Toku (Special)", but now I can connect it to this chart. Do you know exactly what it means? "Specially adopted on basis of Inspection Rules Art. 11", but what does that mean to us or about the sword?

I track that, when shown. Several of the recoreded blades came from auction sites, and old posts no longer active, that didn't show the full nakago, nor the mune. Having said that, it seems the vast majority of them were marked one way or another. A lot of them were numbered. Many had HO, KO, SAKA, NA, and Seki stamps on the mune. And just a few had small Seki and/or NA stamps on the nakago.

Yes, I have 4 others. 3, like yours, with the large Seki stamp, and 1, Apr '44, with a NA stamp. And I agree with Steve, that's some really good metal-work on those fittings!

If you could enlarge the original and get screenshots, I could compare to the 2 I have on file of Nagahisa. Need a clear picture. If you have a link, that would do, as well.