tbonesullivan

Ahh, now I see it. Seems to be a lot of gimei blades floating around lately. This one did not look to have had the handle off in quite some time, though I guess that can be faked too.

I think that there are 5 characters in the mei, but there could also be four. One I'm pretty sure is 秀 HIDE, and above that looks like one way I have seen 兼 KANE drawn, though I am not sure. The first character looks like maybe 少, and then under it is 珍? I tried to get the best pictures I could. I tried the corn starch trick but it wasn't sticking right. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I apologize for the relatively bad photos. I've tried every way I can think of to get a good hamon picture. It is a repeating wave like pattern, and there is a small circle or dot above the peak of the waves, which sometimes looks somewhat like a "notch". Blade is signed 肥前國 住人 藤原 忠吉 - HIZEN KUNI JUNIN FUJIWARA TADAYOSHI. I noted that it is signed on the "wrong" side of the blade, but it looks like at least 1st and 3rd Gen Hizen Tadayoshi did so as well. I was however wondering what the use of JUNIN vs JU indicates. The writing style does look similar to the smiths below. https://nihontoclub.com/smiths/TAD286 https://nihontoclub.com/smiths/TAD289

These are the best I could do! Markings on all the fittings, including the tsuka and scabbard lock. the "&" symbol is clear.

I got some with my phone. Unfortunately the lens and flash photography they use on the website pictures makes it really hard to get good pictures on anything remotely shiny. I'll upload them tomorrow hopefully.

You would need some pretty ironclad provenance on a canteen to convince me that it was an actual Iwo Jima bring back. In the early days canteens and such that USGIs picked up were traded around all the time, while in the service and at VFW meetings after the war. You'd need to find one with a signed affidavit from a confirmed Iwo Jima veteran stating that the canteen was picked up there. I'd probably also want to see either an intelligence inspected tag or a signed bring back certificate as well. If you were hoping to find a Japanese name on a canteen and prove that they were on Iwo Jima, I don't know if there are such records to research.

Yeah, this was definitely a great one.

Another TAKEHISA! Dated 昭 和 十 八 年 秋 - 1943 AKI Tang has some rust areas but there is definitely one clear "W" at the bottom on the side with the Mei. The fittings are matched as well, and the Tsuba and Seppa are marked with "& 3 3 1", while the tsuka, fuchi, and scabbard lock are marked "& 三 三 一". Never seen an ampersand used as a matching number, but I guess it works!

OOPS. I shoulda grabbed a few from the website. I'll do that tomorrow. It was really a great sword. I almost went for it.

AHH! I always forget that they often mix in katakana on these. no idea what コ could mean in this context. As for the other picture, the last two kanji look like 政志, but the two before it are too faded for me to read.

I am also seeing Kanemoto 兼元, or possibly Kanemitsu 兼光. There also looks to be something above the Kane but I can't make out anything.

Top canteen is just 一 三 四 - 1 3 4 Bottom is 二 ? 一 - 2 ? 1 . Not sure what that middle symbol is.

This is hands down the best WWII Type 98 that I've ever gotten to work with in terms of Koshirae condition. The blade was dang nice too. https://www.ima-usa....riant=40110659141701

I do see some of those that are more KURI-JIRI. I think there was also a 17th Century KUNITSUGU who may have used the signature at times. Now the question is when the signature was added? It's definitely an old blade, and the signature looks to have been added a long time ago. It was purchased just as an "old ko-wakizashi" with a pretty bad blade, and was not costly at all.

This sword has been reduced in width, a LOT. It has definitely had the Mune-Machi moved up, probably several times. It also looks the right side with the Bo'Hi has lost more material than the other side. It looks like there were two small fullers on both sides originally. Right now, at the Mune-machi, it is 5.8mm thick along the Mune. A few cm in and it's down to 4.6mm. There is also a good amount of ware and fukure blade wounds on that side, and the tip may have had some type of repair done to it. I don't see any shintetsu though. 1cm behind the Mune-machi, where it used to be part of the blade, it's 6.6mm.

There is no date on the tang. It has 6 seppa, one was marked 150, and another had a different number in Japanese numerals, which did not match. The rest were unmarked, and the Tsuba did not have any markings. I'm pretty sure some of the seppa are not original to the sword, probably added by a "collector" because the tsuba was loose. Its unfortunately pretty rare that I get Type 98s that haven't been messed with in some way, unless they are in really good shape. There are no markings on the fuchi or the scabbard lock, and I checked inside the scabbard, and if it had numbers, they are worn away.

I'll see what I can do, but sadly the closer you get to the blade the worse it looks. It's got a lot of scuffing and scratching on it. I has been treated like a regular knife blade unfortunately, so it's got these long swirly scratches, almost like someone dropped it on a rock or something.

I can definitely make out the 國 KUNI in the middle, but this tang is definitely old, and the signature doesn't show the tagane-makura or tagane anymore. Getting pictures of it was "fun", and I had to use some corn starch, which I have been getting better with. The first character looks like 耒 or maybe 秉, but I don't see those usually used in Mei. Unfortunately with the Mekugi-ana right in the middle That's the best I can do. Looking online suggests it might be 来 RAI? It also looks like there is a third character after the Kuni, maybe 次 TSUGU?

These are the markings I was able to find on the Tsuka. They are definitely a bit faded, and look to mostly just be numbers.

Unfortunately no information came with the sword regarding when / where it was surrendered. It also has most likely been "messed with" a bit, as it has a bunch of seppa which have matching numbers, however they don't match at all, and more than one has definitely been next to a Habaki for a long time. Overall it's a "regular" type 98, without any mon attached to the handle or any real assembly markings on the fittings or stamped on the tang of the blade. It's got some scuffing so the hamon is not easy to see in some places, and there is definitely some oxidation in a few areas. These are my notes on the blade: 37 ⅞” long with a 26 ⅜” blade. Scabbard 29 ⅜” long HAMON: SUGUHA - 直刃 (straight) NIE Crystals visible. Nioi cloudiness visible. Some Partial Ashi also visible. Hada: MASAME (柾目 Straight)

Just wondering if anyone has any information on the swordsmith SHIGEKUNI, which like the KATSUTERU example I looked at, is also pretty much unknown. It's a pretty standard type 98, SUGUHA temper line, Irayagamata tang as with others seen. It has two holes in the tank, one of which looks to be drilled. I also can't quite decide if it is written 重 国 or 重 國, but it looks more like the first one. I did do a search, and came up with this thread from quite a number of years ago, but wondered if there is any more information out there now, compared to 16 years ago.

How does the interior of the Habaki fit the blade? I've seen some before where the exterior of the habaki can be a bit off from the interior. It also could be that someone over the years has played the old switcheroo with parts, trying to make one sword better at the expense of another. The screw in the hilt is a bit interesting. Is it brass or steel? RJT Rinji Seikishi usually have a brass bolt / screw in the upper Mekugi-ana.

Well that definitely is interesting. I wonder if the person they had putting the mei on blades that day made a mistake? Or maybe it was a very new smith?

So, I've searched all my resources, and just wanted to check my reading of the mei, as the best I can tell it reads 勝 照 - KATSU TERU, and no other Kanji even comes close to the second one. I went through just about every Mei beginning with KATSU I could find and was not able to find anything. Consulting my Kanji charts came up with TERU for the second character. I can't find any smith listed under this name. It's signed in the usual late war "chippy" way so I thought maybe I was misreading it. Date is pretty standard 昭 和 二 十 年 二 月 - Showa 20 (1945) 2nd Month (February). The sword is a completely standard arsenal made "P-1944" Rinji Seikishi in every other way aside from the signature I cannot identify.

Isn't that the type of Rinji Seikishi used on the RJT swords? The textured lacquered scabbard, "cup" shaped seppa, the lacquered ito and shape of the tsuka. It's definitely not the "run of the mill" "P-1944" which has the tan finished steel scabbard. Those usually go for a lot more than the "P-1944" with the arsenal blades, though that's subject to the condition of the blade, as always.