Ontario_Archaeology

I purchased this without fully reading the the description, to my surprise it measures about 30cm high and 50cm long. It also is quite heavy coming in over 50lbs. I attempted to do some research on my own but I didn't come up with very much. I did have the Kanji translated on it here is the translation: 元弘前騎兵第八聯隊 Former (元) 8th Regiment (第八聯隊), Hirosaki Cavalry (弘前騎兵) Map 弘前市 (Hirosaki city, Aomori) 　https://goo.gl/maps/AXPvCpgXfME7TGnk6 陸軍主計准尉 Army (陸軍) chief accountant's (主計) adjutant (准尉) 細井信雄 [Hosoi Nobuo] Nobuo Hosoi (male name) 伝統工芸士 渡辺市郎 監修 Supervised (監修) by Ichiro Watanabe (渡辺市郎), traditional craftsman (伝統工芸士) 浩峰作 Made (作) by Hiromine (浩峰) http://www.umai.co.jp/bonsyou/ichiro.html I am unsure that it was made during the imperial era as the birth year of Ichiro Watanabe's son Hiromine is 1948.... Enjoy the work!

30 bids from 10 bidders. That is a lot more people duped than I would have thought

Ah you are right, this is the only picture I saw posted of that sword on the ebay listing. maybe we can @ St Croix Blades for more.

I can take more photos in a day or two if you'd like.

A possible 3rd railway official dress saber, unless this is the one from Dawson found on an ebay listing by St Croix Blades. I have the one from the Plimpton collection.

I purchased this from Plimpton, I will post some more pictures if you'd like. If you have followed my posts for a while you would know I am obsessed with small gunto. I saw the Plimpton youtube video and saw it hanging on the wall and even before I knew swords were going to come up for sale I was trying to find a way to purchase it. I think it was fait.

This was on buyee a few months ago. I can't remember the hammer price. I was definitely tempted seeing it though.

Here is a photo of the page with a similar looking dirk. The banks collection book does not discuss shops that made the dirks. Sorry about your neck

Obviously it was just mounted to the front to slice and dice anyone who got to close

I've also pre ordered the book, I'm really excited for it. I hope it includes the sword tassels he had in his collection as there is such a large variety of them!

I bought it off of yahoo auctions in Japan. Had a hell of a time convincing them to export it. You can go to buyee.jp. Its a company that allows people outside from Japan to proxy bid on items. Just be careful if you choose to use their services as some things can be really hard to export if at all. On second thought your sword could be a youth sword, and mine is a child's sword. Both are in Dawsons reference book.

I think what you have is just a shorter type 19. The youth type 19 are much shorter I think and lower quality. Here is one I picked up a few months ago

You did well, you can't go wrong at 1400 when buying something like this. I watched the auction live and had my fingers crossed for you that you were the winning bid. Lots of the swords went unsold in that auction, glad you were able to get a deal. Enjoy!

I made a thread about this sword when it first came to auction a few months ago. The mon belongs to the beiyang army. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beiyang_Army When the Japanese occupied the area they reused the symbolism to validate their occupation. Here is the link to the previous thread

You can make a post on the "Wanted to buy" section and some people will send you what they have. It is very exciting and very easy to jump onto the first gunto you see, but as I said earlier you will end up seeing 1000s every year if you are always looking at auction sites, forum sales, and classifieds. Even look through old posts and the sold archives. I am pretty sure you can search "gunto" and specify by what sub forum to search and only get those results. Figure out what you really want, then splurge. If this Kyu is what you want, go for it!

I'll add that as a collector sometimes you don't always think with your wallet, and will go for an item you really want. After more "window shopping" and years of looking at the 1000s of swords that come to auction or for sale every year you will find out that there are some you can't live without and will keep you up at night if you miss out on it and it might just be you and someone else driving the sword price up 1000s. That being said, don't be a sucker, and make sure you always do your research before spending big money.

Kyu gunto prices are all over the place, especially when it comes to more unique items, you are never 100% sure what the final price will be. 2000 usd would be a bit high if I were to bid. For reference I purchased a "flashier" kyu for 3250 last May, it has 7 silver imperial mons on it. People have stated the market has taken a bit of a dive, I'm not sure how true that is but really it comes down to how much you want to spend. Also careful, that auction has a 25% buyers premium and auction fees do pile up fast. There is another kyu gunto in that auction starting at 3000 usd that previously sold a few months earlier for 4500, but I'm pretty sure it isn't worth close to that. Maybe 2000-2500 without all the fees. The prices in collecting is based off of how interested people are and I belive kyu gunto just take a back seat to other unique shin and kai gunto, therefore command a lower premium. With all that being said. Spend what you want to spend, set a price you are comfortable with in your head and stick with it (maybe go 100 or 200 over if you get excited). Hope this helps.

So who's collection is that in 😳

Here are some pictures of my Short Gunto with silver plated fittings. The Tsuba is pierced. This one has an inscription on the wood lining of the saya stating "for Major Kawada, ASAP" This is by far the shortest Gunto in nice fittings I have come across. It's a real treat.

The odds are in favor of it being imperial department, but on my sword, there are 7 silver mons. All I am trying to say is that a silver mon might not indicate actual royal family ownership. I'd love to see more imperial examples that is known to have belonged to imperial family members. Maybe we can see a pattern.

Hey now, I was always to keep things simple! K.I.S.S is an acronym to live by! Keep It Simple Stupid!

I have found during my hunt for the shortest gunto that most are poorly made, most usually don't have a gunto tsuba and just a leather combat cover over a non military saya. That being said they do exist. Here is a sword that belonged to Major Kowada (writting on wood lining), it is a high quality piece, but it is definitely the exception.

Reading the full Wikipedia article solves the case I think, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beiyang_government The Japanese had poor relations with the new KMT one-party state in Nanjing. When the Japanese created the separatist Manchukuo in 1932, the new country used Beiyang symbolism.

The beiyang government looks correct. The Wikipedia page shows the same symbol that shows up on the sword. It's interesting that the Japanese kyu gunto and the Republic of China sword are so similar. I'm more curious now to know what kind of blade is inside. The auction states there is a 1400s era blade signed Suyekun, but they didn't expose the tang to confirm.