Bruce Pennington

@PNSSHOGUN John, what would you say about the fittings? 94 or 98? It has the centered chuso, but the light-weight, thin tsuba.

@heimdll Any stamps or stamped numbers?

Thanks Tom! Yes, a Showa stamp. Sadly, for me!, most of these aren't dated. I have dated examples from 1935-42, and '45. But most of them are in 1940, '41. I believe they are an inspection mark of approved, quality, showato by the Seki Cutlery Manufacturers Association. Very interesting on the fuchi. Seems the chuso (latch) was removed and a plug put in it's place. To me, this says the change in fittings was done during the war. Possibly the original saya (scabbard) was damaged and the wooden saya with leather cover was it's replacement.

Photos added for the future. One of the not-common kaigunto with chuso:

To John's thought that the parts are mismatched, I see what he means. There is no slot in the wood of the handle for a chuso (latch clip), yet the fuchi has a hole for one! Tom, could you show an angled photo of the flattened round item on the fuchi in this shot: It looks like a flattened chuso button.

@croftonaviation Tom, Based on the offset holes in the fuchi (handle end-cap) and tsuba (hand guard) it's a Type 98 Japanese officer sword (gunto). The holes are for a locking latch that retains the sword in a metal scabbard. Yours appears to have been made for one, but was later re-fitted with a wooden scabbard that would have originally been covered with leather. The leather covers of WWII swords are quite often gone by the time these gets to our hands 80 years later. The kamon, or family crest on the kabutogane (cap at the top end of handle) says that the officer spent a little more money on his purchase. Officers had to buy their own swords. Many were sold by the Army and Navy Officer Clubs, and many were sold by private shops, antique shops, and dealers. No way to know which one this sword came through. Please do me a favor and show a clear photo of the sakura (cherry blossom) stamp above the mei (signature), and a shot of the other side of the nakago (tang).

It was this very concern that brought the South Manchurian Railway factory to engineer a 'better' design in their sword production. Ohmura's page on the engineering comparison of Mantetsu vs traditional blade Excerpts from his page:

Ray, I clicked on both links, and did not see anything with this May. It just brings me up to the home pages of both sites. Looks like Kanemichi?

@Rictus Cody, There are 2 sizes of Seki stamps found on blades. This one is the larger stamp, and was believed to be used by the Seki Cutlery Manufacturers Assoc. to indicate a quality showato blade. They are found on blades made from 1940-1945, but the massive majority of them are found on 1942 blades. There were swords made for show, called "dress swords" or "parade swords", but they were mostly the Type 8/19 swords and have distinctively identifiable blades with etched/fake hamon. They look like this:

All I can add is that there were a huge amount of variations of these swords, all before WWII. You're probably right about it being a patrol sword. It's quite unique though, with all the writing on the backstrap.

BINGO! You are truly amazing Thomas! [hmm, can't find that Bowing emoticon!!!]

Luna, Welcome to NMB! You have a legitimate Type 98 Japanese officer sword. I personally believe the blade, though, is something older. The 3-tiered machi (those notches where the nakago (tang) meets the cutting blade) shows the blade was reshaped 2 times after it was made. The nakago is also longer than standard, so the blade shows promise as something interesting. You might benefit from posting some full-length photos of the bare blade and some basic measurements: And your posts should probably be better addressed at the Nihonto forum HERE. Re-painting the saya (scabbard) is tough to do and make it look right. I've experimented with an NCO Type 95, and while close, it's still obviously off a bit. Yes, it still looks better than the scabbard that was stripped to the bare steel, but it's a toss-up on which way is better.

Ok. So, sounds like we are probably both right. The "Koa" is a reference to the "Asia United" slogan, while the use of it in the hotstamp was something representing the Retiree war support group.

Here's a comparison:

Ok! You guys almost had me fired up with a new, undiscovered hotstamp......... BUT, Turns out this is the "Koa Token Sha" hotstamp. They were a company founded by a group of retired servicemen to support the war effort. It was the parent company of the Seki Nihon To Tan Ren Jo of which Amahide (Hideyoshi san) was president. Ref Slough: So far, I've only seen them on Amahide blades. The second kanji is Very slightly different from the Koa of the Koa Isshin slogan.

From a previous thread HERE, looks like David McDonald and Ray Black are popular. Older thread has a link to David's site. Fred Lohman has passed away, but I have heard his son is continuing the business, and they have re-wraps listed on their site HERE.

That's the second Kanemichi I have on file with the Kiku + Ichi. Same mei:

Dan, I’m not tracking them, per se, but there is another thread started two years ago here: Don’t know if you want to add yours to that three-page thread, or just keep going with yours with the link I posted. Your title is much more sophisticated!

Right! and someone has bent the broken latch end to fit through the hole to act as a catch. The hole is there for the edged tip of the latch to catch onto. But the tip has been broken off (pretty common actually). The hole or slot is normally covered by the koiguchi (end cap), which I think has been shoved onto the top of the handle (kabutogane). Here's an intact one:

@Dconekin Here's a link to the Translation Assistance Forum. Would appreciate a photo of the 'cap' on the top end of the handle. It is probably the missing end cap to the opening of the saya (scabbard).

Eric, This is a Type 98, so one ana is standard. It is the Rinji fittings that are made for 2 ana. Can you pinpoint or explain what you mean by "clasp comes out...."? The screw in the kabutogane, and maybe the odd cord wrap, look Bubba to me, although the cord does look old. No idea what that metal pin is in the mekugi ana! Took a closer look, and you're right! A half-struck Seki stamp ...... but no mei. What a strange one! Another oddity - (and my technical lingo on this is weak) the curve of the nakago jiri is upside down from where it should be! It should be inline with the shinogi:

Date is November 1944. And I can’t say that I’ve ever seen one without the smith’s name on the other side! How unusual! The poor thing is had a rough life, but I like all the metal fittings.

John, Recommend you start a new thread with these. I'd like to discuss them a bit, too, but the subject matter is divergent from the "Pilot Sword" topic.

We have a member or 2 who have done this by downsizing their collections. I don't think their intent was specifically to disperse their collection, but that was effectively the result of the downsizing. Maybe we could get some feedback on how that went for some of them.

Well, hrumphh! @Eds and @Alban L - Have to make a retraction!!! I was looking at this on the run, and on my phone. After getting home, I have to say I was wrong about the fittings. All the fittings are Navy. The ito is still that end-of-the-war icky color, and @PNSSHOGUN's comment about the same' being something other than canvas puts me on the fence about that too. I still think it's likely canvas, but with these photos it's hard to say. SOooooo..... I'm backtracking to this likely being very late war kaigunto. Sorry about the earlier posts.