Ontario_Archaeology

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.

It's the same style, but the manchurian/manchuko flag isn't there, it is more like the original Taiwanese flag. Its an interesting package.

I have come across a colonial sword that I am interested in, but the symbols and flags are not in the reference books. Its possible that this might be post war, but I am not 100% sure. The kyu gunto features a turtle shell grip and is definitely a Japanese sword, but the symbols are something else. What do you guys think?

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!