Bruce Pennington

Thanks Stephen! That makes 2 Kanehiro out of 5 Kaikosha blades, so far. And only one with the large sakura. That thing is going to plague me for a long time.

Any chance this is a Kaikosha stamp? If not, any ideas?

Wow, wish I could have bought that one! Am I reading this right that it was made in 1929? Here are some pics for posterity:

My annotation "RS" means it was a double-ana nakago, or was mounted in RS fittings. I'm afraid I haven't standardized the location of the note, but it's either by the serial number or by the owners' name. So, 2 of them in that list are RS nakago. All others are 94/98 or unknown (often pictures don't include the full nakago).

Great work guys!

Cool, Trystan. Can I get that smith's name for the files?

Chris, The gunto is legit, Iijima Contractor, Kokura Arsenal. But the tassel is a modern replica. Saya has seen a lot of use, but blade looks good.

Andrew, The fuchi stamps are legit. The "Ichi" contractor is one of the stamps we THINK is of the Kobe Shoten shop. The blade could be one that was cut in half after the war and re-shaped by a post-war owner or a Japanese shop selling souvenirs. @Stegel and @Shamsy should see this. Quite an interesting development for this war sword's life.

George, you crack me up! Love working with you! Already on it. But not much data to go by yet. Here's what I have: 1943 Akimitsu (RJT) タ1246 Kapp & Monson book 1943 Akimitsu (RJT) 2123 (イ536 fittings) TimBlackburne, RS 1944, Jan Kanetsugu (RJT) ク306 Edward Mahle, NMB 1944, Feb Kunishiro (RJT) オ154 Star ND Masakazu (RJT) フ37 Star ND Munemitsu マ 431 Star Cillo, pg 119 ND Nagamitsu (RJT) イ313 on mune Ooitame; NMB 1944, Feb Kunishiro (RJT) オ 154, star Trotter Survey 1944, Mar Munetoshi (RJT) タ2353 Type 98 star Trotter Survey 1942-1945 (ND) Masakazu (RJT) フ 37 RS star IJASWORDS

I believe he's referencing this: WW2 US Govt Archived Documents. Lots of very interesting reading there.

Thanks Neil, I was about to duplicate it in my files.

Man! I've never seen a sakura that big before! Kyle, any other photos? Nothing on the other side?

Trystan, I can't quite make out the date on your Kanemichi. Is that Aug 1939?

Just these 3 Edit: Dang. The nakago seem to be the same sword. Yet the open spaces in the ito, at the top of the tsuka look different. Maybe @IJASWORDS can tell us if these are just older pics of his gunto? Or am I looking at 2 different swords?

A 2-piece with horizontal and vertical burrs; found HERE.

Thanks for clearing that up!

I've found just the opposite. I would say a majority are metal. The tan colored steel saya with showato in them are quite plentiful. We just tend to see the expensive, upgraded versions here at NMB because they are exceptional and gorgeous, and usually have a gendai blade in them.

Thanks Uwe! What a peculiar way to date a blade with the year stated twice. I bet your thought on the last bit referring to a month is right. I did find a reference where it could also mean "Spring."

I've written to @Bruno to see if he has pics of the mei and date on that タ1399 blade. It should be an RJT smith. 1246 is Akimitsu and 2353 is Munitoshi.

The really late-war saya were coarsely made wood with leather. But that doesn't account for all the years prior.

Hey guys! Looking for a translation of this unusual date inscription. The 1943 is obvious, but not getting anywhere with what follows it. (owned by an NMB member).

Another angle, that would matter to me if I were trudging about the hot sweltering jungles of SE Asia or Pacific islands - the wooden saya, leather covered, is WAY lighter than the metal. I have read somewhere that officers sometimes owned both, using the metal, fancy saya for office and the leather covered wooden for the field. Have no idea if that's true, though.

Andrew, There are a number of scattered pieces of this discussion all over NMB, but I don't think there is a dedicated thread to it (note: What a great topic for a thread!), so the abbreviated version is "all the above." Officers had to buy their own gunto, NCOs had them issued to them. Swords were sometimes brought from home. Some villages pooled together and commissioned a "sending off" sword. There were big sales events at Department stores, Sword clubs hosted sales, individual forges sold swords, and both the Army and Navy had Officers Clubs that sold swords. I cannot say whether the arsenals did any selling. In 1942, the Army Sword Office took control of all sword manufacturing for the war, so you see a concerted effort to funnel swords from all over the country into key arsenals. But how they got from there into the hands of officers, at that point, I cannot say. Good post about a 1942 sale in a department store, by Nick Komiya: https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/f216/1941-ija-weapons-prices-todays-values-786328-post2158440/#post2158440 and another: https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/f216/1941-ija-weapons-prices-todays-values-786328-post2154949/#post2154949

Admittedly I am a rookie at this, but I didn’t realize that pattern was so popular.

At first I thought I had posted that pattern, but after looking, post 20 and 53 are similar but this is still different. I bet the pattern has a name even!