Bruce Pennington

Paz, you also have to keep in mind that the RJT system didn't really get started until 1942. So a smith could have been making both showato and gendaito before the program, then, once the program was going, got registered. Even after being registered, I have seen blades by RJT smiths without the star, meaning it could have been showato, or it could have simply been sold on the private market.

I love the sarute on this! Looks personally made out of canvas or something similar. Is that oshigata of your blade, or just an example of the mei/smith?

Thanks Peter! Got the Pros looking into possible shops with that kanji in their name, but we probably won't narrow it down. It's surprising, to me, the large number of shops that were making this stuff during the war, many located in the same city/area and many with similarities in names.

Thanks Piotr! Can't believe the auction house is estimating 2-300 Euros! These are selling for $1,400 USD over here! So @Stegel, the auction house isn't showing the other side. Piotr, the gunto is made by a Seki shop for the Nagoya arsenal and some of these have the latch on the side. We simply cannot see it because it's on the side not shown in the photos. Not widely appreciated in the collector world for some reason, but numerically speaking more rare than copper-handled 95s as less of them were made. Now, there may be more of them on the market than the coppers, but that's either because they were made later in the war and more were collected by the Allied forces, or collectors are simply holding onto the coppers and not putting them out there in the market.

A friend got this one to me. It's peculiar because it's clearly a Spring 1940, yet the kana SEEMS to be an "O オ", but that kana is only found on 1942 blades. I've developed enough trust in the reliability of the I Ro Ha numbering system to know that kana isn't found in 1940 blades. There is a "HO ホ" in 1940, so either this is an incompletely marked HO, or poorly struck (you can see a shadowy stroke that is in place of the missing mark) or an error like we saw on the Mantetsu with the mei kanji out of order:

I saw that too, but was puzzled by the all-blue coloration. I've seen faded ones that change color quite a bit, but this one seems to be blue on both sides. Do you think it's just a faded brown/blue?

Wow Thomas, good catch!!! I went to my files and had the number listed, but no photos, and couldn't remember why I would have the number without the photos. But now I know! John, this makes your gunto even more interesting, from a collector's point of view. It was one of the blades listed in a high school girl's diary, posted in a book found by our own renowned @k morita. She had been polishing blades for the Nanman (Nanban) Army Arsenal and listed several '44 and '45 Mantetsu blades. You now own one of them! Here's that pic for those who don't like following links:

Excellent @JohnFlin, thank you! Hope you didn't put it all back together yet, as I need one more stamp. It should be up in this area: And it looks like this:

Fixed that, just for you Steve! It'll be in the next version out in March.

One from that Llodys action:

A Seki stamped 95. @Stegel @Shamsy Thoughts?

Doing a search on .jfif, seems it's a Microsoft Windows 10 compression software. It's computer code rather than a file. There are converters online, or @piotr67ce you can simply take a screenshot of the image to get something to post here.

@PeterCollector - Peter, you mentioned the other fittings had that same 中 (naka/chu) stamp. Could we get some pics? Trying to chase down the sword shop.

Ok, that site is just torture. So many don't show nakago. One is an RS with double lock buttons, so most likely a star-stamped RJT gendaito, but the photos of the nakago are so poor, you can't read the mei or see details, like a star! ARG!

I was hoping someone would translate that! Thanks George!

That has possibilities, Trytan. As we have seen, many of these stamps are geographic in nature.

Thanks for the added photos, Eric! Most RS gunto used a bamboo mekugi on top and metal screw on bottom, but I've seen a few like yours with 2 metal screws. We don't know why the mune stamps were put there, but I see a lot of it in the 1943 blades, from both Nagoya and Tokyo aresenals (yours being "NA" of Nagoya). I can only speculate that there were 2 inspections that happened, thus receiving 2 stamps, or there were 2 inspectors working each blade, thus 2 sizes. As to the possible marking above the star, I can see why you think it is a sakura, but I doubt it is anything more than layered corrosion. SO FAR, I have never seen a star-stamped blade with a sakura stamp of any kind. There are often small Seki and Na stamps on either/both sides, but not a Showa or Gifu.

Rob, I can't offer more than you've already speculated. Do you see a method of attachment of the tsuka? Removing it, like you point out is the obvious next step to learning more about what you've got there.

I’ve seen it around a couple of times, saved it from earlier discussions. Might ask @Dave R or @george trotter

They are assembly numbers. Design to keep the custom fitted parts together with each blade. Look at all the numbers on the ends of these blades where these women are working. Since each blade is slightly different in size and shape, the fittings are filed and shaped to fit each one. The numbers keep them all together.

From Sesko's book: "ICHINONJI (一文字), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Gifu – “Ichimonji” (一文字), real name Endō Masayuki (遠藤公之), born October 23rd 1890, he worked as a guntō smith"

Thanks Stephen! Couldn't believe there was a smith with that name! Found him in Sesko's list though. I assume no date? The stamps put the blade in the '41-'44 range, with the likeliest date of '43.

Thanks Michael. Looked like a modern update to the boar's eye theme. Good luck, if you sell.

Maybe a typo, but it would be a Type 98 officer gunto. The Type 95 is the issued NCO gunto with serial numbers on the blade. Your 1939 is at the early years for the Showa stamp. Out of 46 dated blades with the stamp in my survey, only 6 are in '39. Most are in '40-'41.