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Any ideas of why these showato ended up not being stamped in some way, especially the ones made during the war, I have several unmarked ones as well.

I never said it was not showato but this is a section for "Military Swords of Japan" right so what exactly does "take it as it is" mean? if you have nothing to add and have no interest why comment, there are people who do have an interest and knowledge of showato.

Not at all Geraint, I understood your meaning and agree with your assessment. At this point it is not even confirmed as "Sadamitsu". Finding a mei to compare for any of the smiths mentioned is not easy it seems.

And remarks like this are helpful in what way? I know people who will not post their swords here for this reason, they are afraid of asking a stupid question when in fact there are only stupid answers. Really, is this necessary?

Piers, I have seen some recently made reproductions without a handle or ones that are riveted together but have you seen any authentic, antique ones without a handle other than ones with the wood handle that has come off over time or where they have been riveted together rather than being one solid piece of metal? The sharp edges and complete lack of signs of use make me doubt the age of this all metal one, the rivets look new, not worn at all.

I have been a member here for many years, this is the first time I have asked for help with identification. I have a small group of WWII swords that have been in storage for a while, I am not very knowledgable on the subject of WWII smiths so hopefully some members here have some insight that they are willing to share, thanks for the responses so far, greatly appreciated. Some better images.

Geraint, actually I can not read kanji at all, which is why I am asking for opinions. So do you or anyone else here have a Gassan Sadamitsu mei to compare? The reason I even brought up this smith is that I saw a blade with a very similar mei dated October 1943 that was attributed to him, but the owner of that sword may not be correct.

Gassan Sadamitsu perhaps?

Lead sheet, tama (lead bullets) and tama-inabe (ladle for melting lead on charcoal fire). I can not remember seeing a term for lead or the grinder shown in Peter's photograph.

I will post some images and see what comes up. It does not look oil quenched to me at least compared to the other known oil quenched blades I have but I can see no activity, an alternate type of steel perhaps or am I missing something.

Just an observation....I collect and study swords from many different cultures and I have never seen any non-Japanese sword described as being an "art sword", this includes the most incredible Persian, Indian and Ottoman swords with damascus steel blades.

At 6 inches it would not seem to have been a weapon but its hard to say for sure.

Marius, I seen to remember you had a ubu Kamakura tachi once or am I wrong, if so any images?

Tachi by Koudai(late) Houjyu, ubu, Nanboku-cho - Muromachi(early), Blade length 80.2cm(2shaku 6sun 4bu 6rin), sori(curve) : 3.0cm, width(blade bottom) : 3.21cm, thickness(blade bottom) : 0.67cm, width(blade top) :1.94cm, thickness(blade top) : 0.32cm, Mekugi ana(hole(s)) 1, weight : 783g.

Tachi Kamakura period (early 13th century) This slender ubu tachi in shirasaya has the deep koshi-zori curve becoming shallow in the upper part of the blade indicative of the very earliest curved swords, although the blade has a severe forging fault, is tired over larger areas, the hamon severely depleted, and the boshi lost, it must have once been a fine blade, portions of the hada which remain are of ko-itame with fine jinie, in places close to the chirimen-hada of early Aoe school work, the hamon has large cloudy koshiba leading to ko-midareba with complex activity length 78.5cm.

Types of mune. "The Connoisseur's Book of Japanese Swords", Kōkan Nagayama Kodansha International, 1997

Now if anything was made for the "Western market" in my opinion this fugly thing would be it.

How about a picture of the whole thing while we are waiting for a translation???

Really...one dead link..oh my!!! Your advice is the advice of a DEALER, my advice is the advice of someone who once was in Dans shoes, I will always give the proper advice to any buyer. Dealers of course would like nothing better than for someone to buy what they are selling without the buyer asking questions, comparing prices, asking for more pictures etc etc.

Berry, if Dan went to the Nihonto forum and posted that he knew next to nothing about Nihonto and was thinking about spending thousands of hard earned yen, euro, dollars etc to buy a sword seen by a friend in a Japanese antique shop there would be a collective answer of "NO, dont do that, take time to read and learn more, check out some of the recommended Japanese sword dealers, look around and do not rush etc etc"....but somehow for Japanese armor its ok for knowledgable (supposedly) members to say...."hey nice armor, yea buy it dude"....well I will always be the one to disagree with that, whats your opinion?

So Uwe, you would actually tell someone who admits that they have no real knowledge of, or experience with, buying Japanese armor to buy the first armor shown to them (by an antique dealer not even an armor dealer). "Hey Dan, nice armor, yea buy it, dont bother to look around and see what else is on the market, dont bother to learn something about Japanese armor before buying, dont worry about asking the seller for better images showing each piece individually from both sides, etc etc, etc"!!!! Honestly Uwe, I expect more from you.

$17,322.30 US or 14,541 Euro......With just these pictures....I think it would be a good idea to look around a bit. Here is a link with Japanese and European dealers, spend some time and do some research. http://samuraiantiqueworld.proboards.com/thread/50/Japanese-armor-weapons-dealers

Dan, at least you were smart enough to ask for advice BEFORE purchasing. First, it would be very helpful to turn the images so that are not sideways, this is disorienting, second.....the individual scales (hon kozane) are not wood, if not metal then they are rawhide. I personally feel that the price is way to high and you can do better. Take some time to look around, if you want, people here will recommend some Japanese armor dealers both in Japan and Europe that sell decent armors so you can compare. Take your time and do not rush into this. One other thing, the images provided are not very good, they are small and do not show each individual part of the armor, both inside and out, this is something that would allow you to see any flaws and also to help show if the parts are matching to this armor, or if it has some non matching parts.

Ford, if you (or anyone else) are successful in shipping your swords to the US can you post your method. I recently had a UK seller tell me he could not find any legit way to ship a sword I had purchased and he refunded my payment. He was reluctant to lie about the contents of his package and was turned down by every well known shipper he could find, thanks.

An excellent article, here are a couple more restoration related articles. http://samuraiantiqueworld.proboards.com/thread/202/craftsman-robert-soanes-restorer-samurai http://samuraiantiqueworld.proboards.com/thread/229/restoration-conservation-kikko-kobakama