Bruce Pennington

John, Welcome to the addiction! You can read about these at some great websites like Ohmura's site: http://ohmura-study.net/900.html Here is a good discussion of the military's effort to gather civil swords for the war: https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/Japanese-militaria/family-short-blades-gunto-688110/

Agree. It's the only way I've been able to mount them properly.

Looks legit to me. Is that some sort of battle damage to the side of the blade?

Thought I'd post this one for interest. Found by a friend who got it for almost nothing. Translated by @xiayang on THIS THREAD as Mori Kunimoto, and has a prominent large Seki stamp. No way to know who built the handle, but I think it's reminiscent of the swords stripped and refitted by the Filipinos after the war for use on the farm, etc.

Thanks Jan! I never would have gotten the 'moto', but I checked my records under that name and found I do have another one. Used the same uncommon character for Kuni. This one from one of Mal Cox's articles: @Ray Singer - yes the poor thing was very poorly treated. I'm going to post it on the military thread. Looks like one of those swords that a farmer stripped and refitted for field work after the war:

A real custom gunto!

Any chance this is legit, and if so, who is it? I want to say Kunihisa, but the 'kuni' doesn't look right.

GAD ZOOKS!!! Is there no end to fakery?! Hadn't even considered that. However, all I've been interested in, really, is their kao.

Got that one on file from a post by Ray Singer, August last year. The smith is translated wrong. Should be "Kiyokuni".

From Marcus Sesko's book:

Thanks @jesse and @Okan! Nagahisa and Shigetsugu must have been prolific testers. I now have 3 Nagahisa and 4 Shigetsugu tested blades compared to blades tested by 5 other guys, but only 1 blade from each.

These are from a well-known faker who likes to put the date on the blade. The other side a a Japanese flag, and a character, but both are partially struck and polished off. Similar fake HERE.

Don't know why no one has helped out with this one, Okan! There are a few oshigata examples on this Japaneseswordindex page, you might try making a collage of them side by side to check. But as a rookie, myself, on mei, I seem to find variations on even recognized legit mei. Hopefully someone skilled at this will help soon.

What is written on the habaki?

This was Thomas' thought too. After reviewing the 1944 production chart, I see Tokyo 1st produced a similar number of blades as the Osaka and Kokura arsenals, and I only have 7 Osaka and 6 Kokura stamped blades on file. So, I suppose the numbers of Tokyo 1st stamps should be inline with that, which would mean we really wouldn't see a great number of them out and about. And that fits the few examples we have seen of he stamping you describe. The numbers of Tokyo 1st, Osaka, and Kokura combined are still lower than I'd expect, which puzzles me some. I have roughly 100 Nagoya/small-seki blades on file. Knowing that they produced roughly 2/3's of all blades, then the combined To/Saka/Ko blades on record should be around 50. But I only have about 20 observed. That might simply be due to difficulties in sampling - I only see stamps that show up on NMB! I guess I'm ok for now. Thanks guys!

OOPS! Found an error in the Stamps of the Japanese Sword, ver 8.6. Page 13, I have the "KI" stamp as being the 2nd Factory of the 'Kokura' Army Arsenal. It should read the Tokyo 1st:

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.