Bruce Pennington

Yes. The large Seki, used between 1940-1945, with the massive majority of dated blades made in 1942. The Kunihiro with NA stamp fits the norm for Nagoya stamped blades, made in 1943.

Painted numbers, were fairly sure, were assembly numbers that usually match stamped numbers on all the fittings. Keeps the custom fitted pieces together during the whole process. @Mike Stevens - any small stamps near on either side, or along the back side edge?

I'd say identical!

So, according to Chris Bowen, we shouldn't see any more papered showa-to after 2019, unless they show "a preservation value."

Another August, 1943 Zuiho. Note the cloth sarute:

Thank you Moriyamasan! Noah and I were both perplexed by the whole rig. It's in kaigunto fittings that are a bit suspect. The ito is wrapped all in one direction (standard Chinese) and the metal fittings are a bit crude. Not often we see Chinese fake kaigunto, but this is probably one.

Good one, Trystan! Another example of a star blade in standard saya plus double chuso buttons.

Interesting topic! Although, I don’t think anyone has ever said that they were ineffective. The single complaint was that in the brutal Chinese winters they were breaking. Also, in the winter, the Chinese would wrap themselves with multiple layers and the kyugunto were ineffective in slicing through the layers.

From the thread of John's link: "(from Markus book): SADAMITSU (貞光), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Ehime – “Sadamitsu” (貞光), family name Matsumoto (松本), jōkō no retsu (Akihide), First Seat at the 6th Shinsaku Nihontō Denrankai (新作日本刀展覧会, 1941)"

GUNTO - "GUN": Army "TO": sword, therefore "Army Sword". Shingunto - "New Army Sword". Kyu gunto: "Old Army Sword. Kai gunto: "Navy Army Sword" (Ha, I know, it does't work well in English). Your tassel, brown/blue, is the Company grade officer tassel (Lt's-Capts), and you've pretty much hung it properly. I highly recommend spending some time reading through Ohmura's most excellent site: Military Swords of Imperial Japan (Gunto). 65 pages of primo photos and several with history and educational stuff.

A Type 98. Saya looks black in the photos, but it is just the lighting, but all the metal parts are painted black. It's got an old family blade in it, and celluloid same'. Good friend of mine knows the owner who said categorically this was brought home from the war this way.

Vitaly, The backstrap is for company grade officers. I'm sure someone will help soon with the tassel. If you post your photo of the mon on this thread - Help Identify our Mons - you'll get a quick answer! Finally, could I get a good shot of that latch release button? John has a thread tracking sakura release buttons. Or you could post it for us, yourself, here - Sakura Chuso Release Button

Thanks to Guy, over on Wehrmacht-awards for this list. For $300-400, you can get the re-wrap done by an expert. "Any recommendations for a tsukimaki wrapper here in the US of A? I'm already aware of the following: Thomas Buck https://www.tsukamaki.net/services.htm Moses Becerra https://nihontoantiques.com/sword-restoration/ Fred Lohman https://www.Japanese-swords.com/pages/restore.htm" another: "Walley Hofstetter of Satsuma, Fl ( https://shiningmoon13.com/# ) He is a friend. Is very talented, reasonably priced, and turn around is super fast. https://shiningmoon13.com/#"

"Officer Military Sword Audit Committee" ? What is this?

A couple of thoughts, Trystan. First, let me say it is certainly possible the star was placed there later than June of '41. But simply because Slough shows a blade in the same month and year without one doesn't disprove the idea of the star being there in June '41. As we well know, many RJT smiths sold swords on the civil market while they were working for the Army. As to the Komiya and Ohmura quotes, the discussion was concerning increasing sword production and recruiting potential swordsmiths. Nick had started the paragraph in 1939 and 1940. In '40 each prefecture had their own trade unions, and he discussed how many smiths were just making kitchen knives. So by July '42, the Army made a push to recruit those smiths, using the trade unions, into swordmaking. None of the discussion refered to the establishment date of the RJT program.

Update: Don't know how I missed it, but I do have another Spring - Spring 1944, posted by @thenamesbob

I don't recall that we have a firm date the RJT program began. "late 1941 or early 1942" is what I recall being said. So, this June 1941 pushes that generalization, but after all, it is a generalization! But Brian's proposal is certainly a possibility. I have Ganko's Feb 42 and Mar 42 in the chart. Now we have a June 41.

I only have 4 other blades of his on file with the "M" stamp, and all of them are "Autumn 1943." Yours is the first Spring date I've recorded.

Thanks Dan! My only correction is that we now know, for a fact, with documentation, that the Showa stamp was used by the Seki Cutlery Manufacturers Association on inspectedt and approved blades. This wil be in the upcoming Mar '23 issue of the Stamps Doc.

Hi Artem, Looks like Kaneuji - 兼氏 (Kaneuji) 1940 One of the real translators can give you the kanji on that date. It's written in the "2600 year" format.

Had some time on my hands, and was browsing. After a close look at this kokuin, it's really quite different that the normal hotstamp. The "1" and trhe outer shape of the turtle? is sunken. But the light brown details, like the legs, are chiseled. You can clearly see what I mean on the upper left leg. Interesting!

Ran the question by Austin Adachi on Wehrmacht-awards. He wrote the book RIKUSENTAI The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Japanese Naval Landing Forces 1927-1945. Figured he would have some numbers if they could be had. His answer: Hello Bruce, I'm seeing a wide range of numbers but it's said at least 155,000 IJN personnel were KIA or MIA. I'm not sure about the ratio of officers to enlisted during the war but the 1932 records state about 9.8% of the navy were officers and 9.3% by 1935. Unfortunately the records on public archives don't list these figures beyond 1935. We can make a very broad guess that the number of officers KIA in WWII was around 14k using 9.3%. I'm sure someone has done a more thorough investigation but I did not have much luck in finding anything either. Regards, Austin

Just got the saya photos, and nakago. Typical nakago for these.

Oops! I mean rayskin!

Wiki has this on total Navy strength: "Personnel strength December 1941 — 291,359 including 1,500 pilots July 1945 — 1,663,223" I'll send a message to Adachi, and see if he has any idea.