Bruce Pennington

Thanks, Conway! Who did the translation and said Sadakiyo? After looking at them both in Sesko's list, I'd lean more to Sadatoshi, too. Interesting that he was the son of Sadakiyo: "SADATOSHI (貞寿), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Niigata – “Sadatoshi” (貞寿), real name Uemura Jirō (上村二郎), born 1916, he studied under his father Sadakiyo (貞清) and worked as rikugun-jumei-tōshō, jōko no jōi (Akihide), Fourth Seat at the 6th Shinsaku Nihontō Denrankai (新作日本刀展覧会, 1941)" I only have 2 Sadakiyo on file and both use standard writing rather than this 'cursive' (or rather a mix of both in this case) on yours. I don't have any Sadatoshi on file for comparison. Have you searched for other Sadatoshi examples?

@NewbieSwordGuy Is this mounted in a Type 3, contingency model, or a kaigunto?

English version: "Katana - Sword officer of the Imperial Japanese Navy Kai Gunto, also known as kaigunto, from the II - Japan - Edo Period (1600-1868)"

Conway, Could I get shots of the nakago mei and date for my files? We'll have to see what the experts say on the stamp. @BANGBANGSAN @Kiipu @SteveM, but generally speaking, numbers on RJT blades tend (not always) to be read with the blade horizontal, while logo and other emblems tend to be observed blade tip up.

Thanks, Sam. The date is June 1938, so this picture is interesting in light of the fact that the Type 95s were out for some time. I do believe that once the military announced they were going back to samurai-styled swords, there must have been rush to bring out the family blades when the official military gunto were not yet available. The only uniform regulation Nick Komiya could find officially permitting NCOs to carry civil swords was dated 1943. Who knows what guys were doing unofficially.

Yep! Matches the mei style of the others in my files. Just couldn't remember who it was. Thanks, Steve!

Yes, large Seki stamp.

They both could be right, Showa era tachi, missing parts or bad shape, restored by a recent collector. I just recently saw that mei in my files, but have forgotten who it was. Maybe @SteveM can helps us out?

That is what I mean when I said double stamped. All 5 have a large stamp and a small stamp, same side. I checked my files, and for a while I was filing circled anchors and have a few dozen. The problem is that they are ALL undated. So, it seems unlikely we could tie the use to a timeline. I have not gone through them to sort large stamps from small. I think @mecox had a discussion of the use in his Navy article. The ones in my file that are signed are: Hiratoshi Inaba Kanenayo Kiyomichi Masahiro Taketada Takeyasu Takeyoshi Toyosuke

I don't have a good feel for how or why the 2 sizes were used. My only tracking numbers are due to the souvenir chart, so I cannot speak to the broader spectrum of Navy blades. But in my chart, I only have 5 that are double stamped: Mumei - 3 Mitsunaga - 1 Takeyasu - 1 I have 6 Takayama blades in the souvenir chart. The breakdown of large vs small: Large -1 Small - 2 No stamps - 2 Unknown - 1 Of the souvenirs in general, out of 108 blades: Large - 58 Small - 16 The rest are not shown in photos. It would take someone like @Kiipu to discuss the practice on wartime blades.

Link in that thread is dead. Good example of why I wish guys would post actual photos rather than using links.

First #49 in the chart! Thanks for posting this, Marcin.

Haven't seen a square sakura version before! Can you post a clear, closer shot of that one? Also, good to see another "Pine tree" tsuba. Neil, @IJASWORDS has one, too:

The stamp is a partially struck Showa stamp. I've attempted to enhance a photo for ease of reading. Possibly Seki Kanemune, but others will have to address that.

@Kiipu Brian, might want to move this to Military Forum.

Hi Gracjan! You can read about the history of the Type 98 Army officer gunto (Army sword) on Ohmura’s site- Military Swords of Japan

Dang! All the animals of the calendar! And an interesting depiction of Daikokuten. Thanks, Jim!

By loose, do you mean the wrap, and pattern, are still in place but it's just gotten loose? Picture might help.

Thanks guys! Really appreciate your help.

Just read through all of your examples, Brian, and I really like your selection. You have a broad spectrum of examples from low quality to high-quality. I also like the location, as the section we had in the photo gallery was not always easy to navigate to for beginners.

I wondered that too

To me, that would make this sword even more attractive from a collectors point of view.

Adding a link to the ongoing discussion in the Military Section:

Wow, thanks Uwe! Brian, and chance of getting that added to the Kanji used in names reference page? I rely on this quite often, but all that is posted for "Nao" is "直 尚".

Yes, that is gorgeous! I was expecting to see the color on Ohmura's page, but was surprised it was not included It looks original, though. We know it was done in NCO 95s from @Stegel collection and posts, and I'm thinking we've seen it at least once before for officer gunto, but haven't done a search yet.