Bruce Pennington

Mal Cox covered them in one of his documents:

Auction with a reserve price of $700. The blade alone could sell for $500 then the saya (scabbard) would sell alone for $150-200.

The whole rig appears to be late war. Very common to see painted wood rather than rayskin or even fabric in these.

John, just curious why you thought the bend happened in shipping. Did the seller say there was no bend originally? If it was in the saya, I don't see how that bend could have happened. I have read quite a few reports, and complaints, that the western swords (and some later Japanese) bent during use in the field.

I only have 4 of his on file, and one is a bad gimei. There is enough variation in each to make it difficult to compare this one with the rest. The only distinctive point I see on this one is the kakihan (enscribed kao). It has a 'bottom' on the 'B' AND an underscore, whereas all the others on file use the underscore to 'finish' the "B". I don't see anything obvious on the mei. Example:

Couple of guys named on this thread that rewrap tsuka:

Thanks guys! I'd say he's happy with David's idea. He doesn't know anything about swords and is just happy to know it's old. It was in leather saya, but the tsuka was reduced to same' only, no metal fittings, no ito. So, I'm walking him through ideas on how to retro-fit the tsuka to something he would like.

Answered via PM

Google translate works for me: Google Translate

Thanks David! I'll pass that along.

Lots of great stuff there! Here's the kai, mentioned:

Hey guys! Friend of my has this one from his grandpa. Mumei, looks old. Can you give us some idea what he's got? Nagasa is 27" (Ignore the stone it's laying on, I told him about that issue)::

If you are planning to re-sell, then, yes you might not want this one. You could face the same sort of complaint from the next buyer.

I have 2 others, by him, with the kokuin, but haven't seen it on blades made by anyone else (yet!). So, does the stamp actually say "Mitsuru?"

Thanks, Conway! Could I get photos of the mei and date for the file?

Mine was in pretty bad shape originally. Polished up quite well:

These are considered to have been made late in the war, as Japan was simplifying sword, and all weapon, production. When they have a blade made earlier, like yours, in late-war fittings, it's a bit of a puzzle as to why. I've seen a few like this with earlier blades. Can only speculate that maybe the swords original fittings were damaged, and re-fitted late in the war.

I am away from my chart right now, but the earliest dated blade with the showa stamp is 1935. The massive majority of them show up in 1940 and 1941. So you probably misunderstood “1931“ to be 1941.

Marc, Could I get a shot of the date-side and showa stamp, please? I suspect it's later than 1931. I've never seen one that early.

Thanks John, yes it's on file. Got it from an ebay sale back in April '23, then Lee Bray (edit: RobCarter3) in June '23. It's one of the blades with the early Nan stamp on the mune.

You'll find the answers to both questions on the links above. We wrote a bigger article combining all the sources into one, posted here at NMB: SMR - The Mantetsu Blade In short - The South Manchurian Railway (Mantetsu) mined and produced their own steel, invented their own sword manufacturing process. Originally there was no mei, simply the SMR logo stamp. But soon they made them with the Koa Isshin slogan, made by Mantetsu mei and date. In 1943 (very late '42) they dropped the slogan. Finally in 1945 a new slogan - Konan essei - appeared briefly. Some mumei blades are also seen in '45. It is not known, but debated, about whether the non- Koa blades were made by the Nanman Army Arsenal or all blade made by SMR and some of them polished and finished at Nanman. We know factually that SMR sent unfinished blades to Tokyo 1st arsenal, and that some blades were polished at Nanman. But any more than that is speculation. As for machines, the massive majority of WWII blades were made with the assistance of machines. SMR used them extensively. The Ohmura site shows several photos of them.

Thanks Dee! Toward the end, he briefly touches on actual sword use in combat during WWII. People often ask about it. We have a small number of stories and a few post-war confessionals, but not a lot of real record of it. Mostly officers and NCO's holding them aloft leading a charge. Yet, in every war, troops wind up in hand-to-hand combat. I suspect gunto were put to use more than we have record of.

Hi Matt! Do you have one, or contemplating buying one?

Kyle, Would you do me a favor and post the mei-side? Looks to be stainless? A few smiths used this form of dating during the war, but not many. I know I've seen a smith that does this, and I can't recall who it was, and it's killin' me.

Thanks Dee, nice reply. The first line of my post was a suggestion for Matt, in case it wasn't clear. And now ... here I am talking about talking rather than swords!! Ha!