Bryce

Another feature of these swords is that the chuso (spring clip) is always located centrally rather than closer towards the cutting edge which is more common. Is a centrally located chuso a feature of earlier shin gunto? Cheers, Bryce

G'day Bruce, I won it at auction last night. Unfortunately the auctioneer's photos weren't very good, so I don't know if the blade is a steel tsunagi or something decent. I thought it was worth a shot based on the koshirae. Cheers, Bryce

G'day Guys, Here is another one with an older blade and Kikusui mon on the fuchi. Cheers, Bryce

G'day Bruce, Here is my Kanemichi gunto made for Mr Minoru Nokura, to commemorate the 2nd year of the Pacific War, December 8 1942. This sword was discussed here: http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/26068-kanemichi-gunto/?hl=kanemichi Cheers, Bryce

Thanks Chris, It is one of my favourites and would have been its original owner's "Excalibur". Cheers, Bryce

G'day Guys, My main area of interest is British military swords of the Napoleonic Wars. Cheers, Bryce

Thanks Malcolm/Bruce. Cheers, Bryce

G'day Guys, Here is one from the internet. Shinshinto blade. Cheers, Bryce

G'day Guys, Here are a couple of mine. The first I think is called toyama umebachi. Haven't indentified the second yet. Cheers, Bryce

G'day Bruce, Thank you for posting this in the translation section. Hopefully someone can shed some light on it. Cheers, Bryce

G'day Guys, I thought I would copy Ray's photos of his similar shin gunto koshirae from the other thread to this one to keep them together. Cheers, Bryce

Very nice Neil, Any chance of some further pics of the blade and nakago? Cheers, Bryce

G'day George, Thanks for posting that. Very similar indeed! Mine has a steel scabbard, only 6 seppa and a shinshinto Bizen blade. If we can get a positive id on the kanji we may be able to do some further research. Cheers, Bryce

After noticing that Ray's habaki was also numbered, I had a look at mine and sure enough it is numbered as well. Interesting the mix of Japanese and decimal numerals. Cheers, Bryce

Thanks mate.

Thanks Steve, If that is the craftsman's name, I wonder what the other set of kanji refers to? Cheers, Bryce

Thanks Bruce, Ray singer posted a photo of one of his shin gunto tsukas in the "Show Us Your High Class Gunto" thread, with the same kanji. Cheers, Bryce

G'day Guys, Had a closer look at one of my shin gunto the other day. On the tsuka, as well as the assembly numbers there are additional kanji, which I assume must belong to either the tsuka maker or perhaps the workshop it was put together in. I know this has been discussed somewhere before, but can't find the thread. Cheers, Bryce

G'day Bruce, I own this sword now. Here are a couple of better pictures. Cheers, Bryce

Thanks John, Thinking about it some more, the fact that the sarute is gone suggests the original was most likely silk cord. I think it is unlikely that a metal sarute would simply fall out or fail. Cheers, Bryce

G'day Guys, Here are some shots of my large shin gunto. It is just under 41.5 inches overall with a 29 inch nagasa and a steel saya. Looking at my small collection there appears to be an inverse relationship between tsuka length and blade length. My shortest blade has the longest tsuka and vice versa. Looks like there was an effort to keep them all a similar overall length, despite the blade length. This one is missing its sarute. Does anyone have any thoughts as to what type of sarute it would most likely have been? Cheers, Bryce

Thank you for clarifying that Guido and thanks also to Uwe and Geraint for the original reading. G'day Stephen, I bought this from Grey, but don't have it in hand yet. Here is a link to the sales listing. I will post some more pics when it arrives. www.japaneseswordbooksandtsuba.com/store/swords/k75-29-katana-yokoyama-sukenao-custom-gunto-koshirae# Cheers, Bryce

G'day Guys, Can anyone answer Grey's question above? Cheers, Bryce

According to Sesko (2012) there was a Sukekuni from Harima who was a student of Yokoyama Sukenaga. I guess he must have moved to Harima from Bizen at some stage. Could it have been him? Cheers, Bryce

G'day Guys, I was wondering if any one could help me to decipher the mei on a recent acquisition. It appears to read: Bizen Osafune Ju Sukekuni Sandai Sukenao Did two smiths make this sword as in Sukekuni and Sukenao, or does the name refer to a single smith only? Thanks to Grey for the pictures. Cheers, Bryce