Bruce Pennington

A kikusui mounted as a mon on a Type 19 dress sword:

A Type 19, sorry, not a 95, but relevant to the paint discussion:

Well. I am underwhelmed. Via email they thanked me for my great article. But it is clear from the auction title that they have no intention of correcting their labeling problem.

Just use warm, soapy water on the tsuba and seppa, then coat with oil. I don’t mind working the rust off of seppa, though as mostly only the edges show. You probably won’t get the stain off the habaki. It’s brass with an artificial copper finish. Working on that runs the risk of removing the copper finish. I personally clean the nakago of all of my type 95s. It goes against the cultural practice around here, but they are mine and I want them to look good. As a minimum, use a rough rag and oil to kill the active rust, then wipe it down.

Just had to share this because of the ridiculous title "WWII Japanese colonel pilot's kamikaze sword RARE PROTOTYPE FOR NAVY AND ARMY The sale is Here. Posting pics as the gunto has the Wakase shop tsuba and patented drag. It's also got 2 mekugi, you can see the second one in the kabutogane. Too bad he's too dumb to take them both out and reveal the nakago. Says it's impossible to remove the handle due to a steel plate. I've also seen this Naugahyde tsuka wrap on a bad Rinji I picked up years ago. Pretty sure the Japanese didn't use naugahyde in WWII. But the blade was probably made for Rinji fittings.

No photos, no returns. "Danger Will Robinson!" as an old robot used to say. I've seen that fake mekugi on Chinese fakes, so it's possible this whole tsuka is a replica/fake on a legit 95.

I have some Kanemichi blades on file with the Kiku Ichimonji, so maybe both your ideas were combined in his use of it. I was thinking along the same lines with the Seki Ichimonji idea too! Mal, you nailed it! I never thought to check the Sword Forum Index site for the mei. Thanks guys, I enjoyed the discussion and the discovery!

Wow, what a doozy! Still has cosmoline on it. Looks like something made for Burmese collaborators, maybe. Thanks for posting, Chris.

Well, the latch is right, the stamps are right, the tsuba looks good, the few dimples visible look good, and the numbers look right. Since the mekugi screw looks to be a replacement, maybe the sarute is too. 450 is a steal if it's legit. But when a seller refuses extra photos, that could be a caution. Ask about his return policy.

Number 912, for sale by our own @matthewbrice on ebay:

@mecox - any insight on the significance of "Seki ichimonji?" Is it possible the first kanji is something other than Seki?

Do you mean the aluminum tsuka? If so, yes this is quite normal. Don't know metals nor paint science, but you'll find that even the aluminum saya in photos, often have paint coming off. Bare tsuka are pretty common.

It's legit. I think the mekugi screw is a replacement, but the rest looks right from the available photos.

With the limited photos of the blade, it's impossible to say whether traditionally made or not. Odds are in favor of it being showato, or non-traditionally made, like Jace says. But you are improving considerably, William!

Rob, Is that a "1" stamped at the bottom of the nakago?

John, forgive me if you've already discussed this, but what distinguishes and early style from the late?

Thanks for the discussion Mal. It reminds me of other forges that wrote out the forge name on the nakago, Tenshozan Sword Forge is one of them, which coincidentally is another forge that made blades for Toyokawa. I have 6 of the Inaba/Inanami blades on file and all of them are signed as such with no other name attached. And all 6 have the unknown stamp added below the Toyokawa anchor. I have 3 other mystery stamps that appear below the anchor - a "HA", "KA", and "moustache". The Ha and Ka are on mumei navy blades and the moustache is on a Tsukushi Suetsugu Shigemitsu navy blade. I'm starting to feel like these are all forge logo. And I suggest the Inaba is, in fact, the Inaba Sword Forge I found in the above link. Simply the forge name, like the Tenshozan mei. I'm searching, now, for my reference on the stated 'Inaba Kaneyoshi' as none of the nakago on file show 'Kaneyoshi'. It might have been a speculative statement on one of the threads. Update: @BANGBANGSAN made the statment that the Inaba mei was of Inaba Kaneyoshi on this post HERE.

A Suya 95 posted by @Leon HERE. Note the wear and even black paint in the serial number!

Mal, After doing some web searches for this mei, I found this page, translated, "Inaba Sword Forging" here: Inaba Sword Forging (White Sheath) (osaka-ryujindo.jp) I've seen other mei with the "Inaba" beginning, and have some kaigunto with Toyokawa anchor and a modified 伊 under the anchor. Do you think we are seeing blades made at the Inaba Forge?

I only have 1 on file for comparison. You can see, among other things, the difference in the kao. The one above tried to make the bottom loop in 1 stroke, whereas the one I'm posting used a large straight line at the bottom.

Thank you, Moriyamasan! Now, since Kiku Ichimonji was a tribute to an ancient shogun, was there a Seki shogun that this is honoring?

Looks like someone tried to make a pole sword out of it.

Noah, You will thoroughly enjoy both books. What you have pictured there, is the earlier edition of Fuller. His updated version looks like this: The one you have is still good and actually has a couple items left out of the updated version. But the updated version is still better.

That's the most comprehensive tally I've ever seen, Trystan! Wow! Previously, all I've seen are discussions by Fuller and by Kapp estimating the total sword production at 2 Million for the war.

Leon, Suya made quality swords, so you have a nice gunto there. You can start learning terms here: Japanese Sword Visual Glossary and learn of the sword types with excellent photos on Ohmura's fabulous site: Military Swords of Imperial Japan