Bruce Pennington

Peter, there is a thread somewhere talking specifically about this kind. General consensus is that they were made in Manchuria possibly for collaboration forces. Maybe someone can provide a link, I can’t find it.

Barry, neither link works!

Thank you for the interesting write-up, Steven! Good luck on the sale.

George, that explains why his info seemed to match what you had already done with the reg translation. "The most interesting part, to me, was the story of smiths making gimei and selling them to antique dealers. I asked Nick for more on that and he said: The "under the table business" occurred, because the antique dealers offered much higher prices than the army. It would have been better profit, even if the smith had to pay the army the full price for the materials. In those days, the government froze all prices for commercial goods, but antiques obviously were not under government price control, so selling under that category must have become a loophole not to be bound by the army's fixed prices. One RJT admits they sold lots to antique dealers this way. " "Those days, retail price for swords at Kaikohsha was 120 yen, and the RJT got paid 50 yen out of this and 23-25 yen went to the polisher."

I don’t know what the heck that is. Doesn’t look legit to me.

Update from Nick - he says it's likely an imported item, probably pre-1941.

The company tassel is a plus.

I like it, as it has personality. It shows use and life, as opposed to pristine gunto that sat in an office corner during the war. Can't speak to the smith, so don't know if it was from someone well-known.

Nick Komiya, at Warrelics, has posted a synopsis of his reading 3 books recently obtained from Japan that have information on the RJT system. I'm posting it here for those who may not be able to read his post on that site. For those who can, it is HERE. "It took more than a whopping 4 months, but the books sent me by sea mail from Japan finally arrived yesterday. They are (1) History of Seki city’s Blade Industry, (2) Rikugun Jyumei Toshoh and the Gunto manufacturing association of Aizu Domain (3) Ohmura’s book on the Japanese fighting sword. They were all quite cheap, as two were second hand anyway, so I had bought them in the off chance that they might help with the sword markings questions that Bruce had been raising in the past year. I already read most of the RJT book, and leafed through the Ohmura book, which confirmed it to be pretty much a concise rehashed version of his website. So here are my preliminary findings. 1. RJTs of Aizu This book from 1994 of 186 pages devotes the first half discussing how the blade smiths of farming tools and carpentry tools of Aizu Domain (current Fukushima prefecture) formed an industry association in 1940, which came under government supervision, as part of the national plan to control every aspect of the economy. Then in 1942, the 1st Tokyo armory called upon the Fukushima prefectural government to ask the industry association for volunteers that would like to become Army Designated Gunto Smiths (RJT) in return for free supply of Tamahagane, charcoal, draft deferment and preferential treatment with food rations. The book shows examples of application forms and correspondence relating to this program. In 1944, 11 RJTs and 15 polishers formed their own Gunto manufacturing association, apart from the former tools industry association. Until reading this, I had the impression that the RJT program was mainly intended to bring existing sword smiths under the Army’s roof, and provide them with incentives to be more productive, but the real aim was more ambitious, to make swordsmiths out of smiths, who previously only had experience in making farming and carpentry tools. The latter half consists of family profiles of the RJT smiths largely based on interviews. Interesting episodes like a smith solicited by both the army and navy, using different trade names depending on who the customer was. Smiths could make good money selling to antique dealers, as an “under the table” source of income besides the military, so smiths applied false names as Mei on these black market supplies. Thus identical swords made by the same smith could have a different Mei. There is also the story of Shigetsugu Wakabayashi, a smith that moved his family to Manchuria in 1937 and succeeded in developing the Koa-Isshin Mantetsu Sword with Prof. Kusaka. He returned to Japan in 1941 and became a RJT. 2. Seki blade industry book This book is nearly 1200 pages and covers the blade industry of Seki starting from the Stone Age, so I don’t think I’ll ever read this whole phonebook. Unfortunately there is so far no mention of the Seki stamping that supposedly served as hallmark of quality for Showa-to. Introduction of stringent quality control and product guarantees are mentioned, but no specifics about markings. 3. Ohmura book I am far from being his fan, but a 242 page book for only $15 was just too cheap to pass up. So far, I’ve only skimmed through it to see what it said about the star stamping, as Bruce had led me to believe that this author was claiming that the star stamp was only allowed for RJTs. However, Bruce must have misread the Ohmura site, as he clearly indicates that the star was an army material inspection stamp, and even when a sword is made by a RJT, it would not have the star stamp, if distributed for sale without going through army channels. Stringent specs were provided in 1942 for RJT sword supplies to the army (document that Bruce posted earlier in this thread), and if an RJT delivery to the army was found not to be in full conformity with these points, the swords were rejected and returned without any star stamp. These would have been released to the commercial market by the smith without being blessed with the army star. So the star stamp meant Tamahagane was used, in so far as the sword was being supplied through army channels. By the way, he mentions 4 names as main suppliers of Tamahagane. 1. Yasukuni Tatara 2. Teikoku Steel of Hiroshima 3. Toshiba 4. Akita Steel Works" Note: I've replied to Nick, concerning his feeling that I had inferred that it was Ohmura who made the claim that the star stamp was exclusive to the RJT program - not so - It is from my survey of over 60 star-stamped blades that I've made the observation that the star is only seen on blades made by RJT qualified and approved smiths.

Thanks John! I didn't have a star-stamped Sadakatsu in the files! I wish the site had said what they meant by "tosho #196" sounds like a number on the mune. No pics though, sigh.

Quite interesting Volker. I wonder if the star is the trade mark, or if the star is the symbol used to represent the words "trade mark" like our "TM" or our circled R registered trademark symbol, ® trademark symbol ™ If so, then the "M.B." is the trade marked initials. Have to run this by Nick Komiya and see if Japan used a symbol, or even the concept, or trademarked names and initials. This could be a western item being used by the leather shop, I guess.

Nice research Bryce. We need more of this in our sword-world. I wish we had a time machine to go back and ask all our questions! Like Bob and Thomas point out, I don't think the smiths were as concerned about which steels were used as much as maybe the buyers were (Army for example). It boggles my mind that so much is made of what beach a sand iron is taken from, or whether it was smelted in a clay furnace or a mechanical one. It is one of Ohmura's biggest pet-peeves. But to get back to Bryce's OP, I'm anxiously awaiting further research! I think your theories sound plausible.

Thanks Thomas, I just learned something (from wikipedia): "Watatsumi 海神 "sea god" or Ryūjin 龍神 "dragon god" was the ruler of seas and oceans, and described as a dragon capable of changing into human form. He lived in the undersea Ryūgū-jō 龍宮城 "dragon palace castle", where he kept the magical tide jewels."

So, obviously not a 1-off design! Thanks Bryce.

Forgive my ignorance, for it is Legion, but I thought I was told that tamahagane (and the nihonto qualification) had to be made from a tatara. That is why blades made by Yasugi steel are not considered gendaito/nihonto. Yasugi Co used kilns and advanced tech, rather than tatara. Am I not understanding something (highly likely!)?

Thank you! You may turn out to be right George, I'm open to that, but I'm puzzled by things like Volker's gunto. It's clearly an expensive custom order, not a refit in my opinion. So why would a fitting shop take the time to stamp a number on a blade but not on the fittings? What purpose would the blade number serve?

JP, it’s essentially a condensed version of his website. And it’s in Japanese, so the pictures are all I could get from it. Won’t name names, but it was a gift from one of our members! Just thought he should receive some public praise even if we keep his name anonymous.

I agree George that this would point to RJT numbering, not shop numbering. If Volker's fittings don't have numbers, I feel his "75" is an RJT number too. It wouldn't make sense that a fitter shop would go to the trouble to number a blade but not put the number on the fittings. I don't have these Kunihide blades in my files. Do you have photos or links so I can log them in? I do have an addition to your list: Masaharu (location unknown) 10/1944 "6" on mune Also, I have 2 oddballs: Mitsunobu (who is listed RJT, but the blade isn't dated and no star - from one of your articles!) 707 on mune (it's mounted Kaigunto, so that should explain the lack of star) and Toyo Knife Co. mei No date 510 on mune

Thanks for the mune photo! The photos of the seppa/tsuba are almost clear enough to tell, but it looks like they are not numbered? Are there numbers on ANY of the fittings? There don't seem to be any.

Great, can I get a picture for the files?

I agree with Chris.

Love it Volker! Any stamps on the nakago mune?

You had it, John!

I’m going to continue this conversation with you Jacques, for a little longer, but I realize it’s probably a waste of my time. You obfuscate and sidestep factual points of the conversation. The reason we posted the swords above with papers was to directly counter your claim that I just quoted. No other reason than that. I’ve made all the points that need to be made. And I will simply standby and wait for you to provide evidence for your idea. So far, it is only an idea, a possibility. For example it is also possible that aliens from outer space made some of the swords with star stamps. I have no evidence to support it, but it is just as possible an idea as yours.