Bruce Pennington

Well, now that you ask, I don't know if that is the latch or the button of the latch! Ha! But RJT fittings seem to almost always have the double release buttons for the latch.

Thanks Matt! Good luck with your sales.

Wow, Rob! That first one looks like leaves!

Colin, I get those 7's and 9's mixed up easily, too. It's actually September 1944. B.E.A.utiful blade! Interesting, though, it's got the double chuso. This discussion has gotten me to check the files. I have many star-stamped gendaito with small Seki and Na (Nagoya) stamps, so this is not unusual. What I did find, though, was that with only rare exception (maybe 1) all the small Seki stamps are being found only on RJT star-stamped blades! The large Seki stamp is different, and was used like the Showa stamp, prior to the Army's take-over of blade production in '42. I also checked the use of the "Na" stamp, and while it is found on RJT blades, it is mostly found on non-RJT blades more often. Hmmm..... The small Seki stamp was an inspector stamp for the Nagoya Arsenal. When Nagoya started using it, the Seki Cutlery Manufacturers Assoc stopped using it (the Large Seki). I believe they switched to the Gifu in Sakura stamp, but that is my speculation. But, it is interesting to observe that the Nagoya inspectors' small Seki, seems to be only found on RJT blades. Might have been created as an acceptance stamp by the Arsenal for the RJT system?

Matt, Do you know if I've recorded this one? I tried your site, but couldn't find the "Sold" items.

Interesting to see a tanto in military leather!

I have read a few stories of guys attempting to bring a gunto into into Japan with them. In each case, the sword was confiscated by customs police and held at the airport office until the individual returned to fly back home. So, it wasn't destroyed, but they wouldn't let the sword leave the airport, except to return home. I have seen Type 95s for sale on Yahoo/Buyee, so they must be allowing registrations for export, but I don't have any info on how that is taking place.

Ha! Rick beat me to this, but @Paz - you do realize you're posting this on the "MILITARY Swords of Japan" forum right? Sure, gunto don't sell for as much as a really fine, old nihonto, but honestly - that just means I can buy 4 gunto that I really like for the price of one nihonto! Love it! Seriously, 'showato swords' are the only thing on my list, ok, I do have a nihonto in gunto fittings, but that's a one-off. Oops, I have a gendaito in RS fittings too. But you know what I mean.

I thought this topic came up somewhere else recently and the answer was something to do with registering for international sale. Is that more in the ball-park?

Something different, found HERE.

A unique take on the 'rock wall' or 'castle wall' them. Note the hole in the center. Found HERE.

Interesting saya, though, with the haikan (ashi) on the reverse side! I've seen one other like this in the past year.

The Type 8/19 'kyugunto' was officially replaced in 1934, so there is a year overlap with what Thomas stated. But even though the 'official' army sword after 1934 was the shingunto, officers were known to carry the kyugunto through the entire span of WWII (Dawson and Fuller both state this).

Thomas, great site! Know who runs it? If a smith is listed there, does that mean they were known to make gendaito? I cannot find him in either Slough or Sesko. Japaneseswordindex.com does have an oshigata that matches: http://japaneseswordindex.com/oshigata/sadaharu.jpg

Hi Andy! Someone will help with the smith's name soon. The '3' on the nakago matches the '3' on all the other parts. So it's likely the shop that did the fittings put them there to keep them all together. All the parts are custom sized and fitted to each blades, so it is believed these were there to keep them together as the blade went through the production process. It is also possible the smith/forge/arsenal stamped the numbers on the blade and the fittings shops matched that number on all the parts. This was sometimes done with SMR Mantetsu blades. But we don't know for sure which it was for all the other examples, like yours, out there. I love that extra stamp on the wooden face of the tsuka (handle)! Maybe a shop logo?

@Shamsy @Stegel may correct me, but this one is legit! I would even love to see if the paint is war-era or new. It has both the gold and red colors that seem to have significance. We are starting to believe that some of these painted gunto were done by the soldiers themselves. An interesting piece.

A Masanao, Sep '43, found by @drb 1643 on fleabay. Interesting feature - a kikusui on the small seppa; and a 1-piece fuchi/seppa.

Interesting piece, Tom! Thanks for posting! I has kikusi on a seppa! I've seen them on habaki, which this has also, and fuchi, but this is the first time I've seen it on a seppa. Also interesting is the 1-piece fuchi/seppa. There must have been a shop working navy, or near the Toyokawa Arsenal, that made these. I've seen a rare few on kaigunto, and then they are used in a big way on the post-war souvenir.

How about a closer look at the hamon, Gary (the temper line). These with the large Seki stamp usually have nice patterns. Also, is that saya (scabbard) chromed? If not, looks like someone, likely post-war, removed the fittings and stripped the original paint down to the metal. Type 98 Japanese officer sword, if you haven't already figured that out.

Thanks Peter, I could say the same about you, as well!

Hi Xander! I have a full discussion of this in the first chapter of Stamps of the Japanese Sword. Concerning showato in Japan, as I understand the current laws, they allow people to register swords regardless of whether they are traditional or not. The premise being someone just bought a house and "found" this sword in the attic rafters. It seems they are being "found" more frequently lately! Ha! And at the same time, like Bruno pointed out, the culture is beginning to recognize the historical value of them. Stamping - not all swords got inspected, and not all swords got stamped. In the hundreds of swords examined by Richard Fuller, Mal Cox, and myself, half have no stamps at all, yet many of them were likely non-traditionally made. To my knowledge, there have been no documents found requiring the stamping of blades of either kind, nor requiring the military to stamp blades. We do have regulation info showing the inspector stamps of the various arsenals, so this would IMPLY that they were required to do some stamping, but we still do not have proof that the stamping was done simply as an acceptance process or to indicate a blade was non-traditional. The Showa and Seki stamps are still a bit of a mystery. The only actual written evidence we have comes from the Seki City website, that describes the early years of showato manufacturing. The high demand for swords caused the industry to really ramp-up rapidly. There were forges making some really crappy showato, which bothered the dealers. So, the dealers requested the Seki Cutlery Manufacturers Association to inspect blades for quality. They complied and acceptable blades were stamped. The website does not say what the stamp looked like. It would be easy to say the "Seki" stamp was the one they used, and it may turn out to be true, but I'm bothered by the fact that we don't have any observed Seki stamps prior to 1940, and the majority of them are seen in 1942 - well beyond the surge in sword production created by the Army's demands of the China incursion of the mid-late '30s. While, in fact, we see the "Showa" stamp as early as 1935, peaking in 1940 and tapering off as the "Seki" stamp takes over. My personal opinion is that the Assoc. used them both, starting with the Showa stamp and replacing it with the Seki stamp, reasons unknown. Ohmura, in researching Seki production and stamping, found a document stating half the swords were not stamped because "traditional swords were not part of that tally". Once the Army assumed control of blade production, around 1942, stamping changed to predominantly area/arsenal stamps, but like I said, we have no documented reasons for the stamping practice. I believe, now, that they were simply acceptance stamps. Gendaito made for the military were often RJT and received the star, or Yasukuni/Minatagawa blades; or were sold privately. Were there some gendaito that received other stamps? There are one or two rare examples of Showa stamped blades that were papered, but I'm not aware of any others. Ah. So I got to rambling! There were many showato made before the stamping process was in full swing. I believe many of the non-dated blades were made early in the war, say 1935-1940, and never went through an inspection process involving stamps.

Volker, is that “9953” just a photo number or is it on the nakago?

William, Nice presentation! And thanks for adding yours to the database of RJT blades! Boy, they really struck that star lightly sometimes! Had to zoom in to see it. It was also an opportunity for me to fix my files. I had the wrong Shigefusa listed in my RJT chart! And I didn't have the connection that he had also signed as Zuiho. Now I do! As for "shingunto", it is my understanding that all WWII army swords were shingunto. The word literally means "shin" - new, "gun" - army, "to"- sword; or "new army sword." "Kyugunto" is "old army sword" referring to the Western-styled sabres. Now, oddly, "kaigunto" literally means "Navy army sword" but that is just how the grammar workout out. "gunto" became the vernacular for "military sword". The 'type 3' was in truth a variant of the Type 98 and had no official 'type' designator. It is a label created by collectors, most visibly our beloved Ohmura-san who used the term on his site, but is more accurately called the Contingency model of the Type 98, or Rinji-seishiki in Japanese. I use "RS" for an abbreviation or simply 'Rinji' (although Nick pointed out that 'Rinji' by itself means something derogatory in slang! Ha!). You can read all about this on Nick Komiya's articles here: Deflating the Myth of the Type 3 sword and Unveiling the Rinjiseishiki Sword 1940

Several good photos and good discussion on that link! Thanks Thomas!

Thanks @Ed, appreciate it! On that Hisaie, I have that one down as "Hisahide". I know the translation of these can vary, but here's the reference (I don't know what book this came from):