Kiipu

Just the yearly production records for fiscal years 1931 to 1940. The fiscal year began on April 01 so I would guess your sword was made in about mid 1939. Short Development History of Type 95 Gunto, Post #205

Thanks for the additional information. Your sword dates to circa 1939 and was assembled by Iijima, a well known Japanese sword company.

Sorry Trystan, I edited the post after the fact. The pictures posted by @cplnorton above are upside down and need to be rotated 180 degrees so as to see the company logo correctly. Thank you for transcribing the kanji characters on the tsuka.

@BANGBANGSAN Tsuka markings. @Bruce Pennington 山本 company logo. Edit: Turn the pictures upside down to see the characters properly.

Is there more than one Mitsunobu 光信? A Mitsunobu registered with the Seki guild on 1943-02-22. Below is the actual text. 刀匠名: 光信. 氏名: 岸･光弘. 受付年月日: S18.02.22 [S = 昭和]. Attention: @mecox

Now I am second guessing the first kanji! So I think you are correct, it is just too blurred to really know. As always, thanks for all your assistance.

@Putu The arrow in your picture is pointing to the kanji character 伊. This is not unusual for this swordsmith. 伊奈波 = Inaba. Stamp Alert! @Bruce Pennington

Is the scabbard painted black or is it some other color? Is the scabbard serial number matching to the blade serial number?

I have identified the following kanji characters in red ink 陸軍X and in black ink 七四二 so far. @BANGBANGSAN can you pitch in and help with the third kanji character in red? 陸軍? = army ?. 七四二 = 742.

I think the kanji character inside the logo is 田.

I found another one, serial 695 with no inspection mark. Help with inherited Sword The picture is out of focus but maybe 阪 2205? WW2 Japanese Katana Mystery Additional pictures of 阪 3490. Nagamitsu For Sale

The serial number range for these is as below. It is unknown if this was only used on Nagamitsu 長光 or for all production from Ōsaka Arsenal. 0 (zero) series: 阪 1867 to 阪 3991. 1st series: 阪 イ313. Three of them can be seen at this link Stamp Survey while 3991 can be found at Nagamitsu Type44 Mounting. New Today ! . I have one Gassan Sakakatsu but the order is reversed, 1 and then 阪. In addition, it is star stamped unlike the swords above so it could be unrelated. Star Stamped Sword Gassan Sadakatsu Rikugun Jumei Tosho

Is this sword, serial number い142, the same as the one pictured in his book that you illustrate at the link below? Attention Mantetsu Owners: A Survey, Page 17

The sword is a typical commercial sword sold to civilians during this time frame. Civilians wanted "samurai" style swords and not guntō style swords. Many of these swords ended up getting "drafted" [conscripted] into the military at a later date. 寿命十六年

Cross-reference to the same sword. Help with Shigetsugu Mei, Please!

@3rd Wave It is hard for me to tell from the pictures, but is the scabbard painted black? Also, is the scabbard matching to the blade serial number?

Sharp eyes you have there! copper-handle NCO sword questions

It is not unusual to see two logos on naval swords regardless of age. What is unusual is that one of the logos is a constant, the cherry blossom with anchor inside. I have kicked around the idea that it could be the mark of a reseller and not that of a manufacturer. The reason for this is that the older army swords are marked just as often as the naval swords yet have only one logo or sometimes the same logo repeated twice, side by side. I have also seen the same company logos appear on both army and naval swords. Yet the naval swords have the additional cherry blossom & anchor logo. It really is a bit of a mystery.

It's all Greek to me! (Click on the thumbnails at the bottom left to see the brochure.) http://www.venizelosarchives.gr/rec.asp?id=17994 Links to the 1932 correspondence between T. Nagahara and E. Venizelos. http://www.venizelosarchives.gr/en/rec.asp?id=17979 http://www.venizelosarchives.gr/en/rec.asp?id=17987 Thanks for sharing the advert Stegel.

A possible 49th series Mantetsu, serial number い 二八. info about first aquisition Attention @IJASWORDS

The link above no longer works as the thread has been deleted. The picture can be seen below courtesy of @charlie1.

My interest was in determining what the blade was and really did not want to discuss the sword. With that said, I agree with John. The ito wrap is completely wrong for an army sword. I do not know if this was put together immediately after the war by an allied serviceman or by a dealer or collector at a later date. To determine the value of this sword, just add up the value of the individual component parts and then subtract the cost of an ito wrap. At the end of the day, I could be completely wrong, but that is my take until some more show up and then I get mud in the face!

Stumbled upon these GBF pictures today and below is the link to them. Need help with a Japanese sword found in a pawn shop, Post #18

A link to another one discussed over at GBF between posts #66 and #75. Showing Off And another GBF discussion involving several of these swords. Need help with a Japanese sword found in a pawn shop

Thanks for the help everyone and a zōheitō [造兵刀] blade it is then.