Bruce Pennington

I had a feeling that I should be sitting this one out!!! Carry on!

"Skins"? Seems like an odd term. Gendaito/Nihonto are made with multiple foldings. There is no "skin" applied to the outside.

Great detail! I like the tough of the leaf folded over.

If you don't get a name here, try over at the Translation Assistance Forum.

On a kyugunto HERE.

Do you have a picture of the emblem on the backstrap at the top? Should be a sakura in there.

First one is great, isn't it! Trust me, each one that comes in is just as exciting! Looking forward to more pics.

I like it!

Is the sun on the habaki created by leaving bare brass? Can’t quite tell from the picture, that is the entire scene an overlay?

Thank you my friend!

A dragon in storm clouds found HERE.

Thanks guys. I went back and re-read Nick's discussion. I mis-read the post. He said that the bullet-proof steel products also got this stamp. I've corrected my original post above.

Yes. That was Nick's spelling in his translation of the Seki City site.

A follow-up from Nick, quoted in full: ."First, is what the Seki City site says about its cutlery industry in WW2. They have a long chronology chart of Seki City history and I provide the full translation of the first boxed section from the original below. Blade Manufacturing as Part of the Armament Industry Because the United States and England adopted China-assisting policies in the early years of Showa, Japanese products were driven out of world markets, shutting off Japan’s exports. Thus the mainstay exports of Seki’s cutlery industry such as knives, dishes and kitchen knives took a huge hit and those producers were transformed into suppliers for the military. During the war, Seki’s entire cutlery industry got drawn into supplying the military, and sword-smithery was once again a thriving industry. In those days, military swords were called Showa-toh to differentiate them from traditional Japanese swords, but as demand grew, bad quality Showa-toh appeared on the market, becoming a social problem. To counter this problem, the sword dealers of Seki devised a program to assure quality by having the Seki Cutlery Manufacturing Industry Association test all newly produced Japanese swords and stamped products that passed this test. This quality assurance program, combined with the trainee program at the forge and efficiency improvements coming from specialization and job-splitting of the production process, allowed Seki swords to gain the reputation of being affordable yet high quality, leading to a 90% share of Japan’s entire market supply. The sword industry of Seki in 1944 consisted of 49 smiths of traditional swords, 200 smiths of Showa-toh and 3,000 Polishers. Secondly, although the Ohmura site claims that the Sekiwake 関分 plant under the Nagoya Arsenal adopted the Seki stamp as their acceptance stamp, the code list from 1943 below attributes it to the Seki Supervisory Group of the Nagoya Arsenal, one of a total of 10 acceptance outposts of the Nagoya Arsenal. Note also that "Na" in Katakana was from the Iwahana Plant under the 2nd Tokyo Arsenal and it was the Kanji version that stood for the Supervisory Dept. of the Nagoya Arsenal. 関分 is clearly another mistake. It is clear from the Seki City write-up that it was the non-traditional Showa-toh that invited the quality test and stamping and the later Sho in cherry blossom is obviously in direct reference to the distinction, "Showa-toh". I cannot imagine why he had to tie it to the Ministry of the Interior. Traditionally made Nihonto made by the 49 smiths were not called Showa-toh. The site says "All newly made Japanese swords got tested", as if testing was not limited to Showa-toh that ruined the reputation earlier. The Seki City History book consisting of more than a thousand pages will surely have more details. I just secured a cheap second hand copy of the 1999 issue, so in a few months, I should have a few more facts for you to chew on. For now you'll need to ask Kiipu for the rest of the source material to back up the summary you made. " I wish the site had shown or named the stamp. From the discussion's mention that blades that passed the testing were stamped, it seems the stamp makes no distinction between gendaito and showato. If so, this lends support to the many guys with stamped blades that swear the blade is water-quenched, folded steel (though all acknowledge that no one can know what type of steel was used), and the one oft-told story of a Showa-stamped blade that passed Shinsa. I also like his thought connecting the early use of the term showa-toh and the use of the Sho in sakura for the stamping. If this is how it began, then sometime later, the Seki smiths decided to switch to the seki stamp for reasons unknown (possibly to distinguish themselves from other sectors of the industry). I honestly look forward to hearing anything we can get from his new book! My reservation, still, about all this is that our collective experience with these war blades seems to back up the idea that they were only stamping non-traditionally made blades. One possibility is that the early part of this history, the testing and stamping at the behest of the Seki industry was broad-based testing and stamping, but once the Army took over in late '41, early '42, they might have had a policy of only stamping non-traditional blades. Of course another option is that ALL blades, traditional or not, turned into the Army got stamped; but blades sold to shops and clubs, whether traditional or not, went unstamped or at most stamped with the Gifu in Sakura.

MAJOR Update on the "Law that required stamping of non-traditionally made blades" Please visit THIS DISCUSSION ON WARRELICS for the full discussion. I asked Nick Komiya if he could find any documentation for the rumor that a law was passed around 1938 requiring stamps on blades not traditionally made. His research has shown that no such law was ever passed. My summary of our discussion: "Both the Japanese websites you checked and your your discussion with Ohmura-san agree on the fact that originally, the Seki Guild adopted the Seki stamp to market their swords as either a) able to withstand bend/break testing, and/or b) as traditionally made swords, standing apart from the factory produced imitations. First-hand reports by owners of blades with the large Seki stamp confirm that the blades were gendaito, traditionally made, supporting this scenario. Then, the Seki Guild was using the 関 until the "Sekiwake factory under the Nagoya Arsenal decided to use the abbreviation of Seki on its own swords". My survey results point to the year 1943 when that happened. Neither the websites nor Ohmura-san knew the origins of the Showa 昭 stamp. Neither point of the stamp history involved a law or regulation. The 関 was created for commercial purposes, and the changes in stamping came about when the Army assumed control of sword production and may have involved Ministry moderation between the Guild and the Army. Discussion time: The period when the industry was responding to complaints of blades breaking in the cold; their response to test and prove their blades - Could the original stamp have been the 昭 stamp? My 1935 昭 stamped blade would support the idea. If so, then we have no idea why it was abandoned/switched to the large 関. But that is wild speculation as we have nothing to suggest it or explain it. But we also don't have an explanation for not seeing the 関 prior to 1940, which is considerably late for a response to blades breaking in the 1930s."

Good eye Chris! So this is one with both Seki and Gifu stamps. The Gifu in Sakura is BELIEVED to be the Seki Swordmakers Guild. The small Seki was used by the Nagoya Arsenal Seki branch.

Well, Nick did use that term "bullet proof steel". It was in the middle of his discussion of the Army supplying it's own steel, tamahagane, so I assumed the bullet proof steel was made of tamahagane.

Now this one on the edge does look like a Seki:

It's a Gifu too, see the 3 fingers:

Thanks for the pictures, that is the Gifu stamp.

Just got some interesting info on the star stamp from Nick Komiya on this Warrelics thread. Seems the star wasn't an RJT specific stamp, but more an ARMY MATERIAL stamp. The short version is that the Army went out and got their own supply of steels. Items made with the Army supplied steel, and approved for use got the star stamp. From NIck: "The star stamp is an interim process stamp related to material inspection. It was not the Jyumei Tosho that was denoted by the star, but it certified that the material used was army issued Tamahagane. Army issued bullet-proof steel also got this stamp on the final product." And example of the spade with star: In the sword world, the RJT program was the only source of Army-supplied tamahagane. So we now have documented proof that the star on a blade means it was made of tamahagne. The reg that @george trotter already translated said that RJT approved smiths would be supplied tamahagane, but it doesn't mention the star. There has always been a bit of debate about whether star-stamped blades were gendaito or was the star just another Army acceptance stamp. This new document proves the star-stamped blades were tamahagane.

Gabriel, Could I get a photo of the showa stamp for my survey files? A 1945 Showa stamp is pretty rare. Richard Fuller cites 2 in his survey, but I've yet to see one with my own eyes! BTW, the fittings are Rinji Seishiki style, or Contingency Model. Designed in 1938 as a more affordable gunto than the standard Type 98, but had design changes to make the fittings more durable out in the field. They became quite popular with officers in 1943-1945. Thanks, and good luck with the sale.

I see clouds and lightning, down the left side, but what are the spikes? A beast of some sort?

Ah....all is well with the world again! Ha!

Isn’t that nakago a bit odd for a Nagoya Type 95?