Bruce Pennington

Jeff, There were private purchace swords made during the war, not used for the war. This seems to be one of those. The "why" and "what's next" really depend on your interests. All collectors have their own reasons for collecting, and often have certain specialties they collect - WWII military, ancient nihonto, some follow certain smiths, some love the fittings, etc. I see you are already into martial arts, so you already have a respect for fighting skills, precision, discipline, honor. You'll find all of that and more in the history and craftsmanship of Japanese sword-making. Or maybe you won't get hooked. But you are asking the questions so I suspect you're already in! Prowl around the some of the forums, maybe you'll see something that catches your interest: Nihonto: http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/forum/3-nihonto/ Military: http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/forum/45-military-swords-of-Japan/ Fittings: http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/forum/4-tosogu/ Excellent free education at Ohmura's site: http://ohmura-study.net/900.html and at the Japaneseswordindex: http://japaneseswordindex.com/nihonto.htm

Ok, here ya go, good luck!

George, My star-stamped Kunitoshi is also in a metal saya with double release buttons.

Nice to see it still has the leather locking strap with snap! Those almost never survive and are lost. Can't tell much about the blade from the picture, but likely non-traditionally made showato. Could be wrong though. If you have it in hand, you might be able to make that call better. Blade doesn't seem too bad off.

Karen, Welcome to the Club! We'd love to hear the story behind your gunto - how did you come about owning it? Is there a story between you and the war? etc. Kiipu is correct. Called a Type 95 NCO gunto (army sword). Amazingly, only 3 numbers from my own, 2643! The model was commissioned in 1935. This first version, with copper handle and office-styled saya (scabbard) was made for less than a full year (working from memory - late 1937 to July '38). Just a few more than 6,000 produced. You can read about them here: http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/Japanese-militaria/ija-type-95-nco-sword-info-228172/ http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/Japanese-militaria/short-development-history-type-95-gunto-676112/ and http://ohmura-study.net/957.html

Adam, I think it's cool, and valuable, that you have taken a wartime smith to study his work! I hope you can attract the corporate knowledge of the community and compile it for reference. I know nothing of nihonto. I would have looked at that beautiful hamon and assumed it was traditionally made, but for the stamp (Showa?). If you had enough examples collected, you could see if there was a quality change over time. The Showa-stamped blade is 1941 or earlier, and Neil's Seki-stamped blade is 1941 or later. Any claims made by The Monkey can be dimissed outright (he may be correct, but he tampers and lies so much that his word is worthless). You are right about the saya. It would have originally had a leather cover. Many of them were damaged and lost.

It seems that RJT blades almost always have two stamps on the mune, Maybe the higher quality standards required to inspections.

Adding this from Grev's thread ( Identical to the "A" with tiny star of Neil's IJA tsuba.

Yes, March 1943. This threw me at first, but I think what we are seeing is an attempt to make a "Na" by hand. I've attached close-ups side-by-side.

I ran it by Chris Bowen, and he says it's new to him as well.

I doubt he will find that exact pattern though.

No, you are on the leading edge of a new discovery! Neil‘s example was the first I had ever seen, and yours backs it up. Now we just have to find out who was making them.

For reference, and for new guys learning to spot fakes, I thought I had come across a sukura like the one above, but it turns out it was a Manchukuo plum blossom. So, it looks like the faker in this example is using plum blossom imagery in his head when trying to craft the cherry bloom. The one on the right is what this reminded me of. You can see the faker got the petals right, but used plum-blossom stamen.

I no longer have the earlier F & G edition that Doug references in his item description (just re-ordered!), but the pattern looks more like a police pattern than an Imperial court style. Maybe even a diplomat. Peter, how in the world did you find those examples?

Wow, that is identical, even with the "A" under the star! The numbering looks more precise on Neil's example, yet the style of the "2" seems the same on both. Could be the same sword shop. I can't imagine that it's an arsenal inspector's mark, since we have both army and navy here. We've seen arsenal marks on fittings - "東" and "名" - but nothing of joint-use that I can recall. There is a shop known to have made both army and navy fittings, and they even have a star in the center of their logo. I don't know that we can associate the two with this shop as we have an example of their logo in use and they use the whole image, not just the star. We do have an example of a shop that only uses the center of the logo for their stamps, though, so it is possible.

Could we get a photo of the number on the nakago? Also, we could use a name. You can set one that appears at the bottom of each post in your settings. https://youtu.be/pre5EXnhGE0

I agree John. There were many other railways, so this could have been for any of the others. I doubt SMR would have permitted an image like this for their opereation.

Grev, I've only seen this once before. Neil (IJASWORDS) owns it. Could we get a photo? Might want to start tracking this in hopes of figuring out it's meaning. My initial reaction is that it's a shop logo/mark. Here's his, and it's on an IJA tsuba.

Done

An interesting tangent to the SMR discussion, coming from Gunboards forum. A German Mauser with what appears to be a railway stamp on it. Posted here: https://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?1160751-South-Manchuria-Railway-pistols&p=10381215#post10381215 NMB thread here: http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/32656-mauser-c96-with-smr-railway-stamp/ It is similar enough to maybe be SMR railway police, but different enough it could be railway of any country's rail system.

Some pics with sources shown. Multiple images of Chinese soldiers using Mausers. SMR was in China, and the various railways had their own police/soldier guard units. So it's definitely within the realm of possiblities that one of the raiways (there were more than just SMR) stamped this weapon.

From a post on the Gunboards forum: https://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?1160751-South-Manchuria-Railway-pistols Wondering if anyone knows of the Japanese using German Mausers during the war? The railway stamp COULD be South Manchurian Railway.

That's quite interesting Peter! After seeing the other example you found, it appears to be a private/civilian version with hints of IJA qualities, so made for a civilian blade that is being converted to WWII use. I've seen island swords with really poor attemts to replicate the IJA tsuba, but this is not what we're seeing here. They are not trying to "copy" the IJA tsuba, but simply add hints/flavors of it into the private tsuba. The fact that you show 2 examples could mean they both came from the same shop, but they arent' identical so it opens the idea up that more than 1 shop was making these. I'd like to see more examples if they can be found. (I'm adding the other one just in case the website page ever goes inactive)

"Apple" is a good example! https://secureyourtrademark.com/can-you-trademark/common-words-phrases/

Ah. That settles it for me then.