Kiipu

@Bazza & @george trotter Here is some pictures of one of the Australian contract swords from a recent auction. Lot: 705

Yeah Chris, that is kinda funny. Just do not look at the blade! I remember long ago the Japanese buying these swords for the fittings knowing full well that the blade would need to be cut up into pieces. I could never understand the logic of owning a sword just for the fittings. At that time, the Japanese economy was roaring and they had the money to spend on things like this.

Yes, supply and demand. This is what most Type 95s look like in Japan. I recommend died-in-the-wool collectors not look at the listing. 旧日本陸軍.九五式軍刀拵 @Stegel

The Australian auction was from the Rod Bellars collection. Some of these swords at one time belonged to Donald, of F&G fame. If I am not mistaken, the F&G photo's of his collection were taken by @Bazza. Historic Arms and Militaria Lifetime Collection of Rod Bellars

I think I know what happened. For the 12th series, Mantetsu substituted the katakana character オ "O" for the katakana character ヲ "WO" . Both are pronounced as O and in addition the ヲ is rarely used. See the Wikipedia article about Wo (kana) . In addition, no ヲ "WO" marked Mantetsu blades have been reported. There was one blade that was thought to be a ヲ; however, it turned out to be ヌ433 based upon the date of 昭和庚辰春 1940 spring. The confusion was caused by a poor quality rubbing that can be seen at The presentation sword from Japan to Finland . I would like to hear what others think about this revision to the timeline. Revised 1940 Timeline 5th ホ Series: 昭和己卯冬 1939 Winter to 昭和庚辰春 1940 Spring. 6th ヘ Series: None reported so far. 7th と Series: 昭和庚辰春 1940 Spring [hiragana と character instead of katakanaト ]. 8th チ Series: 昭和庚辰春 1940 Spring. 9th リ Series: 昭和庚辰春 1940 Spring. 10th ヌ Series: 昭和庚辰春 1940 Spring to 昭和庚辰秋 1940 Fall. 11th ル Series: 昭和庚辰秋 1940 Fall. 12th オ Series: 昭和庚辰秋 1940 Fall [Would normally be the 27th character in the iroha poem]. 13th ワ Series: 昭和庚辰秋 1940 Fall to 昭和辛巳春 1941 Spring.

It is the katakana character オ [letter O] and there is no mistaking it. This is the second Mantetsu blade prefixed with オ that is dated Autumn 1940. Attention Mantetsu Owners: A Survey, Page 9

Correct Trystan, starting with the 45th series モ799, the 連 was used instead. Nan-Man, when they took over, did things differently. Nan-Man Arsenal had the blades inspected locally and then forwarded them to the arsenal for polishing and fitting out. (Prior to this, the swords were sent to Nan-Man Arsenal and then inspected with the 南. From Nan-Man Arsenal, they were forwarded to Japan for fitting out.) This sword confirms that this Type 100 variant, which I refer to as the Nan-Man Type 4, a play on the names of both SMR 南満洲鉄道株式会社 and Nan-Man Arsenal 南滿陸軍造兵廠, was a product of the arsenal and unique to them.

I already have your sword recorded by the student that polished the blade back in 1944! I am not pulling your leg either even though it sounds unbelievable. Compare the serial number on your sword, which is セ一二五一 [SE 1251], to the picture linked below. Thanks for posting these additional pictures as it has made my day. Attention Mantetsu Owners: A Survey, Page 10

One of the swords that was polished by the student and specifically mentioned in the book has just surfaced. The serial number is セ一二五一. WWII Japanese Sword

I think the eyelet is for a lanyard. It this case, it would go around the wrist.

Stephen, that is one of the rare ones. It was made by Mizuno and only a few were made before production was stopped. Has anyone come across this Stamp before?? @BANGBANGSAN, @Bruce Pennington, @Shamsy, @Stegel

It will not be possible to identify what this marking means unless one can find an old advertisement that depicts it. The character itself can mean center, middle, medium or inside, interior, midway. As one can see, it is a fairly generic character all by itself. It is unlikely to be a logo without some other design element around it.

Ah, I see the mustache is back in the news again! I thought Stegel identified that as being Bruce's logo? More research needs to be done to find out just how old Bruce really is.

濃州住亮信 = Nōshū jū Akinobu (a.k.a. Sukenobu). Mino Province

昭和十八年春 = 1943 Spring.

Your sword was made by the South Manchuria Railway Company (SMR). It is also referred to as a Mantetsu sword. 昭和甲申春 = Spring 1944. 満鐵鍛造之 = SMR forged this. Below is a link to an article about your Mantetsu sword. Mantetsu - South Manchurian Railway

@Lareon Thanks for looking and the lack of nakago mune markings is nothing to worry about. In this case, the star stamp is the one and only final acceptance marking. Cross-Reference A Kanemitus made in the same time frame as the ones under discussion. Kanemitsu

@Lareon Does the 尾州住竹内兼光 marked blade have any markings on the nakago mune?

The production date is September 1944 according to the text over at YouTube. This places production after 118 and 247. The serial number is actually three digits long. The second tang hole went right through the middle digit and all that remains is 2X4. WW2 Japanese Type 3 Shin Gunto made by Takeuchi Kanemitsu, 1944

The one I downloaded came from the thread Any help would be appreciated . Here is another one for the database that comes from Hot Stamp .

Thanks Trystan! You just got to love those variants I suppose. As an aside, Nick chimed in with "奢 stands for 奢侈品 meaning luxury goods." I am closing the book on this translation. Please forward all complaints to @Bruce Pennington. Sorry Bruce, I just had to do it.

To learn more about the second tag that you linked to above, see Nick's article about price control tags. War time labeling of Civilian Goods

Wow! Thanks for the quick results. The top encircled kanji character seems to be a variant of 奢 [luxury or extravagant]. @BANGBANGSAN feel free to chime in!

Seems these have come up before. Below is a link to 35926, close to 35914 that Trystan mentioned. Type95 Looks Real But I'm Not Sure

Does anyone have a better picture of this price control label? I am having a hard time deciphering the encircled kanji character. Row 1: Unknown encircled kanji character. Row 2: X革製品 = X kawaseihin = leather goods. Row 3: 特免品 = tokumen-hin = special exemption. Row 4: 大阪府 = Ōsaka-fu = Ōsaka Metropolitan Prefecture. Nick thinks the X could be 牛 which would mean cowhide. 免 = 免