Bruce Pennington

What kind of wrap is on the tsuka? leather?

So, maybe not useful to have for a non-speaker like me then?

Just curious if anyone has read Ohmura's new book yet. I know it's in Japanese, so it will have to be someone who can read Japanese. I'd post the title and link, but my searching skills are so poor, I can't find it. It was actually mentioned on NMB when it came out.

Got lucky with my two, from an auction.

I agree, unless more clear pictures reveal a fighting blade, it's a Type 19, dress sword (sometimes called a parade sword). Very interesting mon on the end of the handle! Looks like a "Yin/Yang" inside a chrysanthemum?

Yes, your last post is from the Ohmura site.

It does help, doesn't it Neil. The total lack of them is a bit of a puzzle to me. Assembly numbering could be anothe area to study! There was such a variety - painted, stamped, painted & stamped, English, Japanese, English & Japanese, modified Roman numerals, off the top of my head. It bugs me that my '39 Mantetsu in combat saya has no numbering of the fittings. Only 2 peices have a rough "11" or "2" (kanji) scratched on them. At least it says the seppa and fuchi started life together.

Dan, Don't know either, but it's one of the signature signs of the fakers. They often do that.

Honestly Raphael, I don't know of anyone that knows. If you can find out, there are a lot of us who would love to hear about it. I watched a "Forged in Fire" episode where the guy replicated a Mantetsu by freezing the soft-steel rod to machine press it into the hard-steel pipe. But we have no knowledge of how the Mantetsu operation did it.

Even the tassel is brand new.

It looks nihonto to me, but I'm the least qualified to answer that question. Hopefully the pro's will chime in!

Thanks Randall! I realize many other forum groups don't require names, but we spend a lot of time with each other here, and it's nice to really know folks all around the world. Real friendships develop. There is a way to keep your avatar name, and simply place a real name at the bottom of the page like Geraint, above. Thanks for the clear picture. I guess it was just shadowing in the first picture at the top. There's no stamp.

And in either case, tanker or pilot, it demonstrates our point - they carried full-length gunto.

I actually posted the same pics on the thread Marc posted above, but here it is: http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/25975-breaking-news-on-the-all-brown-army-gunto-tassel/#:~:text=Anyone%20have%20contact%20info%20for,gunto%20seem%20to%20confirm%20this The regulation was cited by Nick Komiya on Warrelics, here: http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/Japanese-militaria/what-were-regulations-army-civilian-employees-carry-swords-701783-6/

Is "Fet" your name? If not, please go to your settings and put in a first name. We really like to talk to real people at NMB, thanks! That's a great kyu you've got there. Could we get a clear picture of the full nakago? Is that a hot-stamp at the end?

Raphael, I'm not a tassel expert, but from what I see, it looks legit. While Nick's uncovered regulation states length requirements, I've found that the numerous fitting manunfacturers varied in many areas of war products. Here's a picture I posted on page 6 of that thread:

I have seen several WWII gunto with similar punch marks, but have never come across an explanation.

Try it out Stephen! See how it looks with one of your blades.

I just saw one that had both the creation date, and the cutting date which was about 30 years after.

The 2 or 3 times "marines" were mentioned were translation errors, better corrected to read: "Navy Basic Training Group"

Excellent article translated by Guy, from a Japanese Wiki, at Warrelics. Should be pinned or archived as we reference this guy many times when folks ask about Takayama-to. Here: http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/Japanese-militaria/takayama-masakichi-man-who-responsible-takayama-ta-768582/

That really is a nice blade Bryce! It looks longer than standard.

I've seen it once before:

Neil, I've never seen a kurikata (is that the right word for the knob?) that is metal and has a hole for, what?, a retention strap? Looks like a wartime adaptation to replace the civil kurikata.

There are guys that can just look at the snaps and tell if they were WWII era. I don't know if they are here or over on Wehrmacht-awards. I have a leather saya, too, that looks too new. But the fit is good. Your blade, with the Showa stamp, was likely made in the 1940-1941 range. It's possible that both our swords had saya damage along the way and had these leather saya made as replacements, near the end of the war. Agree with Brian, the "tanker" "pilot" terms got started in the early collecting world by guys that didn't know about blade length classsifications. Plus, we are fortunate, today, to have internet access to tons of photos and war documents that weren't available to early collectors.