Bruce Pennington

Ah! I knew I had seen that before, but was looking in Fuller's book, instead. Dawson states the doctor is carrying an artillery sword. My opinion, and only an opinion, is that the Doc had the money to have his blade outfitted for the artillery koshirae; or there was a shop re-fitting waki blades for sale, as Dawson states there is another one known in another collection.

Tassel cord looks like it came off of somebody's curtains!

Another mon. Found by @Kiipu at THIS SITE.

Interesting item, Doug. Anything on it, like a tassel, that would point to Army or Navy? The dark leather is often tied to Navy.

Wiktionary says the charactor is Category:Japanese terms spelled with 洟 洟 (uncommon “Hyōgai” kanji) nasal mucus Hope the shop name is something less gross!

Thomas, what brings to mind the Medical Corps vs Artillery? Can you give the page for the Fuller reference? I can't find it.

Prior to 1942, Kokura had oversight for both the Tokyo and the Nagoya arsenals. So you will see small inspector marks of both arsenals in the middle with the stacked cannon balls of Kokura on the right. After ‘42, the stacked cannon balls goes away, as Kokura no longer was responsible for administrative oversight, and the Tokyo star and Nagoya Circle, are seen.

Posting pix for when the link goes dead

I've always liked that style tsuba/seppa. I feel it is a custom upgrade, as the majority of them are all black. Strange that the tassel is an Army tassel on a Navy sword. We see that occasionally. Also, not-common to see a kaigunto in leather covered wooden saya. Too bad about the condition.

Here are the 2 pages from Fuller's book, showing his survey of tsuba types

Well, that sort of says this was a real WWII era, at least, tsuba pattern!

John, Do you mean for this blade/serial number, or in general, all of them? If you are asking the latter, they are quite normal for 95s, and scattered throughout the war years.

That's the 3rd, and earliest Masatomo I have on file now. The 2 others are May and Sep 1944.

Agree.

Thomas, Could the design depicted in this photo from your link possibly be what we are seeing on these kabutogane?

Love the pattern. Looks like stacked rows of straw or sticks.

Don't know if this one has been posted (just don't have time to re-scan all the previous pages). From @Bryce HERE.

Yes, I remember this one! you might try some pliers on each end and unscrew them

Oh, I agree, I don’t question his skill. But on the topic of slicing a rock with a sword, I don’t think it would’ve worked as well if he had hit the rock anywhere else.

I don't have a lot of Sadakazu kokuin, but what I have seem to show quite a bit of variation. He must have been doing these by hand, and not using a formed hot-stamp:

Pure theatrics. You can see the fault-line in the rock protrusion that he cuts off. I could have done the same thing with a small chisel and a hammer.

I wonder if there is a purpose, or significance, to the finger-like projections of the waves?

Same tsuba and kabutogane designs! Also, the fuchi on both are legit Japanese design. To add some credibility, this machi on this blade are aligned straight across, whereas many Chinese fakes have offset machi. Hmmm...

BTW really nice looking blade! Be careful with the leather loop, I broke mine sticking my finger in it a few too many times!

To return to this topic, a bit, it is an interesting possibility. I’m not familiar with modern paint work, and don’t know if this is a paint style that is easily done today. I haven’t seen it before on modern stuff. But that I don’t follow paint-world. And I guess my only problem with it being a wartime paint job is from your pictures, I don’t see any wear and tear. If it had been done early in the war, because of the shortage, I would expect to see lots of wear and tear on the paint. Factory paint on tape 95s, we see a lot of wear on the hanger ring and the areas that it contacts on the Haikan. Plus there should be a lot of wear on the bottom few inches of the scabbard at least.