PNSSHOGUN

Yes it is a Kai Gunto but not made by Emura, it is a Takayama-To. I'm not sure of the exact translation but that is the type of sword. These were made from Stainless steel so they are not traditionally made. There is a fair bit of info out there about these swords, this example also has a fairly rare retention cord present.

The Kai Gunto & field grade tassel #2 are now SOLD, PP.

3: Company Grade (Lieutenant to Captain), worn with some fraying on the edges but excellent colour - $120USD + postage

4: Navy Kai Gunto in very great condition with some minor fading where it was tied onto the Sarute: SOLD

2: Field Grade in worn but very nice condition, some minor fraying to the tassels - SOLD

Moving on few nice Shin Gunto tassels 1: Field Grade (Major to Colonel), rare dark brown type in exceptional condition - $500USD + postage

Kirill is correct, the premier smiths of that time made a few of these, there was a splendid example by Gassan Sadakazu for sale somewhere recently.

For parade and barracks use I imagine one had to keep the mandated equipment but once "in country" it was all fair game.

Hi Nicholas, yes you are correct it's a Type 94/98 officers sword with what looks like a Zohei-To blade. These were made using good quality swedish steel and forged using nontraditional methods, while not as impressive as many other swords of the era they usually have very high quality fittings, were popular with officers and performed well during wartime sword exhibitions. We would need better photos of the tassel to ascertain what it is, don't worry about tying it on the wrong place, there are plenty of originals found with the tassel tied around the hanger. Please make sure you wipe down the blade with a good machine oil and avoid touching the blade with your bare hands, this will prevent further rust occurring and ensure you can pass this sword down to the next generation intact.

What a fine example David, mounted in very good quality Type 94 or early Type 98 mounts as well, is it dated?

Thought it may be of interest to see how Mon are distributed among different types of swords, I know it will be difficult to ascertain any reliable data but I'm sure there will be a trend or something interesting discovered(?). I would have attempted to collect data from the Identify our Mon thread but many examples don't have the types of blade listed. Obviously this can be skewed by the nature of how everyone collects but please indulge me for now. One thing I have come to recognize is they are most regularly found on Shin Gunto of all types with old blades, followed by Gendaito, quite rarely on Kai Gunto and very rarely on Showato. An observation on swords from Yasukuni & Minatogawa Jinja is that they rarely seem to carry Mon, however that could very well be a matter of smaller sample size and this was based off swords listed for sale over the years. For simplicity Showato can encompass all non traditional blades such as Koa Isshin Mantetsu, Zohei-To & Murata-To, special steel swords, stainless and any bearing the usual Seki/Showa stamps. So please, if you like, list your swords with Mon here as such. Of mine: Old blades: 6 (two are only Koshirae) Gendaito: 2 (one a Yasukuni) Kai Gunto: 0 Showato: 0 Kyu Gunto: 0

"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt". Adam has not only spoken, he is yelling through a megaphone at this point.

Amateur polish......

Yours would be a solid tsuba like in my picture above. It may be sometime before you come across one of these, you may have some luck if you make a thread in the wanted to buy section.

Value would be 3-5K USD.