Scogg

I'm not super up-to-date on late war occupation swords. Thoughts on the lack of seppa? The leather on the saya cover with shiny hanger and buckel does not look old enough to me, but I suppose they could have been cleaned... Best, -Sam

カ = “Ka”, perhaps? I have never seen that one on a gunto tsuba. Very interesting. -Sam

What looks like Ayasugi has got me stumped. Is that what I'm seeing? I know you've been working on your Nihinto photography, and it looks very nice. I'm not very good at this; and I really feel I'm shooting from the hip; but here goes nothing! -Sam

Apparently there are a few trillium varieties native to Japan, but I’m not familiar with Japanese native flowers. I think it looks a lot like trillium. Trillium is a really interesting wildflower that also grows out here. It can take up to 10 years to mature and bloom.

Oriented for legibility

Good advice Bruce. Short of a rubber mallet, two chunks of wood can work good too. If the tsuka is stuck on the tang, avoid prying or applying excessive force. Instead, I like to use two small blocks of wood to help loosen it safely. 1. Place one block of wood firmly against the washers (seppa) and tsuba (guard). 2. Hold the sword securely and position the second block of wood against the first. 3. Using controlled, gentle taps, strike the first block with the second block to transfer force to the tsuba. 4. Continue tapping until you feel the tsuka "break free" or release from its seated position on the tang. 5. Once loosened, the tsuka should slide off much more easily by hand. Take care to use only light, controlled impacts. Excessive force can damage the tsuka, tsuba, or other fittings. Sorry it's been such a journey! But that's half the fun. Best of luck and be careful. -Sam

I went ahead and purchased myself a copy of this book, luckily our very own Mr. Singer had a copy for sale. Mine is signed by the author, and numbered in the 230's. It's a nice little book, and pretty interesting. There's a good amount of nakago oshigata. Additionally, theres a little instruction page on reading kanji, mei, and dates. There is also a list of "nakago translations, found in military fittings" that represents the wide variety of swords you may find fitted for the war (from nambokucho period blades, shinto, to gendaito, and shawato). Additionally, there are some hand drawn illustrations about how to tie tassels, there's a photo of hanger chain styles and belt types. There is also a photo of a souvenir dagger in shirasaya, listed as a "kamikazi knife"; I wonder if this is where that idea/theory was first published in English... Overall, it's almost like a "collectors guide to Japanese military swords", and unsurprisingly has a little bit of outdated info. Still a nice resource. Considering the publication is over 50 years old now, maybe I will share some of those tassel / hanger / belt pages to our respective educational forum topics. All the best, -Sam

The fittings are real, and WW2 era. The blade could be wartime, or older, but impossible to know until we can see the tang. The photo that the nephew gave you shows a different sword in the image. Note how the piece of paper shows an image of a sword with a different style handle (look at the diamonds in the wrap pattern), and a different scabbard.

I have not yet encountered Blade# 117949 or Scabbard# 103062 in my cataloging efforts It could appear someday, but I have not yet seen either personally. According to my records, your sword was likely manufactured prior to September 1942. Best of luck, -Sam

It's always been my understanding that piercing wasn't necessarily the goal. A spear thrust carries a lot of momentum, and even if it doesn't penetrate armor, that force can still knock a man from a horse, dent metal, damage joints, crack bones, and/or incapacitate a person. It's probably worth noting that this is not the predominant shape of yari that we encounter, which leads me to suspect it could have a more specialized use. It's easy to speculate, but let's not forget that these items are from a long time ago from a culture we may not entirely understand. Speculating is fun, but short of some good data or expert input, it's just that. All the best, -Sam

Hi Brody, welcome to the forum. It’s hard to say much from the photos provided. What we can tell you is that the fittings are Type 98 shingunto fittings with a leather combat cover on the scabbard. The blade inside could be wartime or older, but we cannot tell unless the tang is shown (preferably on a dark non reflective background, oriented so the blade tip is north and tang is south.) Skip ahead to minute mark 6:40 for instructions on removing a blade from its fittings. Best to take it slow and be very careful. Do not do anything to remove rust or alter the patina on the tang. It could severely hurt the value. Best of luck and cool sword. -Sam

The trillium flower is what immediately comes to mind, although I cannot find a corresponding mon in my Hawleys family crest book. Maybe a rabbit hole to follow. -Sam

Hi @Mark C, Does your hanger have any numbers or stamps inside the large clip? Like this?

Hi Lucian, It's a noble idea, and it would be nice to reunite mismatched swords with their saya. However, the chances of it working out in practice are very low. The main issue is that a mismatched sword and saya are not necessarily linked to another corresponding mismatch. For example, if sword #1,000 is currently paired with saya #3,000, that does not mean sword #3,000 is paired with saya #1,000. All it tells us is that sword #3,000 must also be mismatched. Its mismatched saya could just as easily be #8,000, or any other number. So, while I think it's a worthwhile idea, I suspect the number of successful reunions would be quite small and exceedingly rare. For what it's worth, I keep a running database of these swords, including stamps, serial numbers, and saya numbers. I have around 1,000 entries at this point, and after a quick look through the records, I could not find a definitive mismatched saya that matched a known blade's serial number. I'm sure they are out there and will turn up in time, but of the roughly 200,000 swords originally manufactured, and considering what has survived today, it would be a rare thing. Most of the swords that I encountered and cataloged have matching saya, which was a surprising revelation to me when I started this project. That said, if you have a sword serial number and saya number that do not match, I would be happy to search my archive to see if I have encountered the corresponding mismatch during my cataloging efforts. All the best, -Sam

Thank you Julien. Here is the example that Raymond Yan shared on his Facebook page. Likely not the same exact sword? Looks like he just shared this one image. But nice to see the engravings a bit more focused / up-close

I saw a nearly identical Tanto horimono on facebook recently. Described as depicting: 三十六歌仙 "Thirty-Six Immortals of Poetry" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty-Six_Immortals_of_Poetry

My interpretation below: "Leather combat cover" is the term generally used when leather is applied to any saya at any time. This includes the metal 94/98 scabbards. "Late stage type leather-binding wooden saya" on the other hand would be primarily for blades that previously had a wooden saya, usually but not always civilian or blades donated to the war effort. A metal hanger would be added in place of the kurikata, and then the leather added. Thoughts? -Sam

Here you go @Geraint, and those of you who cannot open the link. I find the mimi impressive and interesting. I have not yet developed the “eye” that you tosogu folks have; but I find the piece attractive. I’ll have to practice a bit with Curran’s procedure. Could be a nice pickup for someone IF it were to sell for gimei prices. Regards, -Sam

Great summary Rob. My beliefs reflect your own. I am sure that I have shared my example below maybe in the leather covered thread; but here it is to add to the string discussion. I have an early Aluminum Type 95 (Variation#2, SUYA, serial number 7249), that has a string wrapped scabbard. It was applied with an incredible amount of care and precision. Note how the string is not tied at any place, but is rather tucked neatly into itself (see last image). It appears to be coated with some kind of glue or "hardener", I am not sure, but it feels like it's had something applied over the top. Its very cleanly done, and VERY tight. I have always assumed it was wartime, or immediately post-war. I rather like it, and think it adds some character. I do not know if it holds any relevance to the string discussion, but the scabbard on my sword is a unit armorer replacement and is unserialized. All the best, -Sam

Arrows? I thought the other boat was throwing Gunbai at the archers!

Indeed; I would follow Jimmy Hayashi's in-hand advice over all else

Hi George. I don't view anything here as inherently "negative". Healthy criticism is welcome. The way you view things is valid, and is valuable as a new user approaching the board. Allow me to address a few of your points; in an attempt to help explain some of the issues we experience. @Brian, our forum administrator, has talked about a few of these over the years and he is ultimately the "boss man" when it comes to changes. I do know that he is working on updating forum software - and when that happens - many new "quality of life" changes will be implemented and some of the "old school" forum stuff will be phased out. So some of this stuff may just be "in progress" as we speak. *The site loading issues will hopefully be temporary, and are like you say, a result of some recent DDOS attacks. *Traffic is small because the hobby is small. This is not a site for martial artists or practitioners, but rather focused on the artistic qualities of Nihonto. We pride ourselves in focusing on preservation. There are a lot of martial arts resources for practitioners elsewhere, that is more focused on practice rather than preservation and art. *Image limitations are tricky... It cost a lot of money to host a site with this many images. You may not realize, but this is one of the largest depositories of Japanese Sword images on the web, and that's no small feat. To increase image size limits, upgrading to gold will increase the limit, but otherwise it's just too cumbersome on the site. *For "topics you've interacted with" would be nice. What I do for this, is click on my own profile. When you're viewing your own profile, if you scroll down, you will see all the topics that you have recently interacted with. Hope this helps explain our situation a bit, -Sam

Hi Steve, Unfortunately this item for sale is not a genuine Japanese sword.

Hi Joeloe, welcome to the forum. Let me start by saying that you are awfully lucky. And there is no need to take this apart; it’s best to keep this type of sword assembled. What you have is a “Type 95 Gunto”. Yours was made in 1938 by Suya Shoten Co, inspected by Tokyo first army arsenal inspectors, and under kokura arsenal supervision. Yours is the first variation, often referred to as a “copper hilt”. They only made about 6750 swords of this variation before switching to an aluminum hilt. The copper hilt variation#1 Type 95 gunto is exceptionally collectible, and I have recently seen examples sell for between 3k and 6k. It’s real in my opinion. Does the scabbard have numbers at the opening that match the blade? Would you mind sharing an image of the tip/end of the scabbard also? Thanks for sharing, -Sam