Bruce Pennington

Hmmm. Memorial for WWII? To what market? I thought most Japanese either didn't care (the young) or didn't want reminders (the old). Made for foreign buyers?

Could be that "dark gold" Fuller tried to describe.

That explains the angled cut in the top of that one seppa!

Rafaelle, First - Thanks for sharing that sword!!! Wow, how cool to have custom koiguchi! This is an important discussion at the moment (to me). For a LONG TIME it has been told, like an oral history, that there was a law established in the mid/late 1930's to required stamping of non-traditionally made blades. Currently, no such law has been found. Rather, what is known, and published, is from the Seki City website (thanks to Nick Komiya at Warrelics). It talks of the sword history of the city and says that in the 1930s, due to the Shanghai incident, and ramping up of military actions in China, the sword industry had to drastically increase their sword production. In the process of innovation, the industry started making sword industrially, non-traditionally. But local producers began to be bothered by low-quality "showato." They got the Seki Cutlery Manufacturers Association to inspect blades and stamp them to show that the blades (showato) passed quality inspections. This stamping began as early as 1935 and ran until the Army took national control of sword production in late 1941- early 1942. Half of all surveyed blades are not stamped (Seki swordsmiths produced 70% of all war blades. Let that math fry your brain!). Surveyed, and dated, blades with stamps, show the Showa stamp as the earliest known stamp (1935). Observed Seki-stamped blades begin in 1940, but over half of the Seki-stamped blades are not dated. So it is POSSIBLE that it ran concurrently with the Showa stamp. But we don't know. This is taking a long time to say that we believe the Seki stamp (and Showa) were being used by the Seki Cutlery Manufacturers Assoc. to stamp SHOWATO of good quality. In my survey, the Seki stamped blades almost always appear to be nihonto/gendaito. My personal opinion is that there were a mix that were either: 1. made in the traditional manner, yet used non-tamahagane, 2. made in the traditional way, but oil quenched; or 3. made non-traditionally in several ways, but were really good quality. The bottom line is that we just don't have documentation to prove anything yet. I discuss this all little more in depth in the Stamps of the Japanese Sword.

Here is a great reference page for the names of your gunto parts: http://japaneseswordindex.com/glossary.htm as is this one: http://ohmura-study.net/903.html You can try posting in the Wanted to Buy NMB thread for your missing parts. I have some extra seppa. If you want to PM me with your mailing address, I'll send them to you. You can try them and find whatever fits and mail the rest back to me. But like Chris said, if the tsuka fits tightly, you don't need these. I don't have the black one in this picture, but I have the others. If you find something you like, you'll have a shot-in-the-dark as to whether they fit on the nakago. If the hole is too small, it's OK to file the hole bigger. The fittings shops did the same thing. If too big, it might not work as the seppa could slide up or down and be visually out of place.

Shamsy or Stegel would be the ones to say for sure, but I'm not bothered by those. Although the picture doesn't show the Iijima stamp clearly enough to tell.

I wanted to say that, but I'm wrong most of the time, so I left it for the pro's.

Thanks guys! Kanehiro then. Gwyn, thanks for the good example of Kanetsuna!

right side up Yoshi XXX?

Would like your thoughts on this. Got a nakago for my files. I tried to find the name on Japaneseswordindex.com and came up with an exact match that said "Kanetsuna". But I cannot find a WWII Kanetsuna on the swordsmith index of the Nihonto Club Site. The name given by Chris Bowen is "Kanehiro." I wouldn't doubt Chris, so is there a correction needed on the oshigata page of @Rich Stein's site? I am puzzled by the difference in strokes at the upper left corner of the second kanji in the tsuna vs hiro if they are the same name.

Well, I'm way out of my league in a tassel discussion, especially the pre-WWII kind. This is just from Fuller. Now, as good as his is, there are still things we've found out that have corrected his work on certain items. But, you can see from his page that the "dark gold" was found on that police sword.

Found it at the auction house. It's a Suya Shoten gunto.

Bingo! I see it now! Too bad, that’s the primary year the stamp was used. 1942. Thought I had a record breaker for a moment. thanks guys!

Boy, I wonder if they intentionally made their writing that bad, kind of like we make our modern signatures wild and sloppy to make forging difficult or simply to make it unique? Anyway, thanks! I see it now. I've requested a better photo of the date from the auction house. It would be significant if the date is 1936. It would be the earliest large Seki stamp I've ever seen and would would put it's use in parallel with the Showa stamp. It's possible the second kanji is Roku and the "legs" are just too faint to see. That would mean 1941 which would fit the currently observed dates.

Lousy pics from an auction, sorry Toshiharu maybe? And date is Showa "10 10" or "10 1" Anyone make it out?

I believe @Stegel in another thread, said the Ichi serial range ran out to the 160000 range. Here's one at action with 143256 number. I'll link the auction, but that's going to be out of date once the auction is over. HERE

How about this entry from F & G, pg 201. He said the "tan or dark gold" was "seen on a Civil official's sword". His seems to have the same tear-drop shape, too.

Found another on another NCR sword, posted by @Jon MB HERE. Interesting that it is just 6 numbers away from the 693 habaki shown above. Also interesting is the blade is Japanese smith Kanekado fitted by a Chinese company (obviously working under the Japanese).

John, I made the same mistake a while back. North China Railway, which is what this sword was from, is separate from SMR Mantetsu. At some stage, SMR had overall control, but they were separate lines with different emblems.

The next question would be - What are the holes put in postwar?

Nick Komiya just posted a nice summary with some new insights at UNVEILING RINJISEISHIKI 1940.

Jean, the 4 corner Sakura are standard in military tsuba. What is more unusual is that they would be missing on the other side.

Interesting observation Ed. I was bothered by those holes. Now that I look again, the hole for the blade looks quite crude like it was cut out with a welding torch. I know age can be faked, but the patina sure looks real.

Don't know if I'm seeing more that what's there, but maybe this is hail stones in rain? Found on a 1940 Sadakatsu HERE.

Thanks Phil, that would be me! Yours just became number 39 of the 1942 Seki-stamped blades, and my first Yoshisada.