Bruce Pennington

This must be an old blade that had some damage. The two large mekugi ana are either from an old blade or the nakago is from a Type 95. WWII officer gunto only had one ana. So it could have been an old blade, damaged and repaired, or a damaged shinguto with a Type 95 nakago reattached. I'm puzzled by the non-military fuchi. That would be fine if this were a pre-WWII blade refitted in combat IJA fittings, but the ito and same' look very new. But then why would the fuchi have standard WWII paint scheme? Other than the fuchi, it all looks legit Japanese, but it's definitely got a story it could tell.

David, I took a look - nice looking blade! I don't know if you've seen this page on Kami Yoshimichi: http://japaneseswordindex.com/yoshmich.htm There were 11 generations of them. I only saw 2 oshigata (actual tang signatures) of them, so that's not a big sample, but I can see why some of the guys were leary of the signature on this sword. There didn't seem to be the amount of old-age rust on the tang (dark, blackish) to make it very old. So, there is a chance it was made during the war with a "gaimei" or faked signature. Several smiths were arrested during the war for making faked signatures. Famous smith names on blades were worth more money that non-famous names. So there was a strong temptation for some smiths to want to fake a famous one. Like I said, 11 generations are a LOT of smiths and swords, so without more old signatures to compare yours to, I wouldn't side either way on the issue. And either way, that a really good lookin' gunto!

I'm confused by your thought that the blade was not military. You haven't posted pics of the nakago (tang) and signature. Is it one of the old blades fitted for WWII?

David, Mark is correct about the assembly numbers. They aren't always there, but when they are, the number is usually on all the seppa, and often the tsuba. But if the pieces match perfectly, then they could have been made for this blade, and the number-stamping-person simply didn't finish them all (end of a shift; end of the day; US bombing run interrupted; etc). Like Mark said, it could be a replacement seppa too.

I don't know anything of the science of it. I used acetone to remove a really bad post-war gold/black paintjob on a latewar 95 saya and it worked pretty good. Still had the original paint underneath.

Nice backboard for your gunto display, Neil!! Ha!

There's a movie "The Bombing of Darwin" on Amazon Prime.

Thanks for the pics and the article John, very interesting! That's the first brown laquered kaigunto I've seen, other than the one on Ohmura's site.

Dan, Certainly true, however the metal saya, with locking clip would have no need for a leather retention strap, unless, the spring was broken on the clip and this was a field repair to add a leather strap. Neil, your pics don't show the orientation. I'm assuming the added device is on top, outside of the body? Also, in the one in the pictures, does it have the release button? Seems that it would be blocked from use by the open dust cover.

Spotted another one. This time on the leather combat saya cover! Owned by Kenneth De Shepper, posted on Military Swords of Imperial Japan (Shin gunto) facebook:

Wow, Neil. Are the other ones on a diagonal like this one? Never seen anything like it! It doesn't seem to be lined up with an opening in the tsuba as one would expect if it were for leather retention straps. If they were only on gunto fitted with combat saya, I'd agree with steve above, but that wouldn't make sense on a standard metal saya.

Sooooo .... Hamfish, sounds like you've been trying?!?! Ha! Mental note to self "be careful what you buy from Hamfish!".

Matt, I particularly enjoy the stamps on gunto, and to my knowledge the answer to your question is unknown. There is an interesting page on Ryujin Swords that postulates the Showa stamp was only used on blades sold through the Officer Clubs, so theoretically, a blade sold through a private shop would not have one. Such a circumstance MAY also account for the lack of an arsenal stamp. Seki stamps before 1940 were a swordsmith guild mark, but once the mark was taken over by the Arsenal inspectors, like your 1943 blade, it wouldn't be there if the blade wasn't sold through the arsenal? The stamping process is one of the least known aspects of the gunto manufacturing world.

Ha, no I read it fine. It was a brain-fart that forced our 12 months into a 10 month cycle and came out with "December" as "10". A mind is a terrible thing to waste!

At first I thought it was katakana letters, but now I can see it's not. Maybe someone who reads Japanese can tell us what this is:

"10 month". Hey everybody knows that December, right!?

December 1943 is the only thing I can tell your with certainty!

It's kanji, but I don't know what it is.

Sorry to bother guys, buts what da heck is a "Mimi?"

Can you zoom in on this?

Yup, I see it now.

I see what you me - even the black of the tsuba is gone where it is exposed (still there where the seppa covers it). I have seen many kaigunto with the gold-giliding gone from the saya fittings, but I've never seen the tsuba black gone. This does seem intentional. It looks good that way, but not original.

Is there a smaller stamp at the top of the nakago nearer to the tsuba(handguard)?

Completely new to me, a contractor stamp on a Toyokawa navy arsenal kaigunto seppa. Thomas Appel Nillson proved the pic at the Military Swords of Imperial Japan (Shin Gunto) facebook page. He identified it as from the Gunto Sei Saku Jo company.

Wow Steve, how wild that they filed the number on the nakago jiri!!! And the 8 doesn't bother me since it means the gunto was assembled by the at the same place making these marks. Speaking of "place" - major lead in chacing down the organization, coming from Thomas Appel Nillson at the Military Swords of Imperial Japan (Shin Gunto) on facebook! He's posted pics using the same numbering system, from 2 swords. Both are kaigunto and have the Toyokowa Navy Aresenal stamp, but differing contractor stamps on the seppa (T.E.C and a new one - Gunto Sei Saku Jo). Considering my example is also Navy, I'm starting to think that it is the Aresenal using this method as they assemble the parts to the blade. The confusing thing right now, though, is YOURS which is Army! This could simply mean the practice was not isolated to a single arsenal. Hopefully more to come! ps: the hash marks are hard to see on the first one, but they are there