Ontario_Archaeology

I have been trying to take good pictures for a while now, I like the black background, the issue I find is lighting. For my set up I bought 2 umbrella lights for 100 bucks and they allow me to adjust the lighting on the sword to perfection. I also have the same issue with alot of pictures coming out dark, but with photoshop you can always edit the lighting after quite easily. Attached is one of the pictures of my mantetsu that I took, with two different light sources you can really make certain qualities pop.

So the imperial mons are not just for the imperial family, but for those belonging to the ministry of the imperial household, which is probably the case for 99.9% of swords with imperial mons on them since I don't see any swords really being confiscated from the imperial family, unless specifically surrendered under ceremony.

Any pictures of anything I can do to put any doubts to rest or confirm?

I belive the attack covered in this video was conducted by Japanese army paratroopers

Not even worth 5 bucks at this point. He has another one listed as well. It's a real shame what he does. Part of me wonders if he uses these scams to try and fund a real collection....

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/115423050465?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=s3IXV20cS72&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=g283_Z_0RIK&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY The samurai monkey is a butcher.

you can put it up for sale here on the forum, or facebook groups, ebay is an option.

7 Mon is unusual enough 😂

The blade is in this koshirae, its interesting that the 1930s era blade would be in 1880ish mounts. This came out of the Plimpton collection. Thanks for the information!

I recently bought one from the Plimpton collection... Here are some photos of the tang. Sorry this might be a murata to. I'm not sure if these are the same or not.

Anyone pick any of these up? I went for the Nomura sword but 7000 + 18% USD was too much for me!

Ah another great detail I failed to mention is that on the wooden insert of the saya there is some writing that gives the sword an owner. Major Kowada, that can be seen in the first picture. There is other writing but I don't have it translated...

I have acquired what I think is my holy grail. From the Plimpton collection, there was a short gunto Koshiere that I purchased. It is high quality as you can see, a metal scabbard and darkened fittings, as well as mon not only on the Menuki but on the Kabuto gane as well. Working with @mdiddy (Matt Jarrel of Sohei Swords) I was able to find a blade that fit into the Koshiere. The blade is signed Kanefusa and is dated to the Muromachi period (according to the seller, I don't know any better). I am more than excited to share this with everyone! Special thanks to Matt for his help and all the time he took reviewing blades for me to make this all come together.

Interesting, the thought just popped into my head and I thought I'd ask! Doesn't shock me even a bit to know you guys had the answers! Bruce that's really interesting about the GIs having to scratch off the mon for war prizes, here I thought captured Japanese soilders were frantically filing off the mons before handing over their rifles. Thanks!

On a lot of Japanese rifles surrendered, the mon of the emperor was scratched off as a way to preserve "honour". I am curious why we don't see gunto with mons scratched off before they were surrendered as much. What do you guys think? I think Ives seen one or two examples but I never saved the images. Matt

@Bruce Pennington

I think in Bruces write up on Mantetsu's he mentions that the Manchurian Railway logo stamp stops being put on blades after 1938? (maybe 1939) I can't remember, but after that the stamp is no longer put on.

There are no numbers on the tsuba or seppa. On second look the bottom of the tang has these lines on both sides

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/265498070990?hash=item3dd0eb0fce:g:x0oAAOSwXBBh2gd1 some Koshiere with battle damage

Wak in type 98 mounts are less common than standard length Katanas, however not horrible uncommon in my experience. I have found that shorter Wak, that measure less than 60cm to be "rare". I think this has to do with the measurement regulations for acceptable lengths. I believe it is discussed in another thread, but I am not sure what one. As for the Waks in non military mounts, but still had a combat saya on them, these were used mostly by non military personal that were contracted to work for the military, and if their contract position was similar to an officer rank, they would be permitted to carry. I have found many Waks in full type 98 mounts often are fancier than their full length counterparts, however this might just be due to fewer examples of waks than full length. Here are some pictures of Waks in my collection. The general tassel is not original to the sword, I have 2 more Wak gunto, however, they are just mounts, no blades.

Most surrender tags are made out of cloth attached to a hanger.

@Bruce Pennington

Thank you!

Sorry about your necks!