Unknown Marine Landing / Gunto Koshirae ?!

[Guest Nanshoku-Samurai]

Hello All,

 

I have recently stumbled accross an interesting variation of the late 44 / Marine Landing Gunto Koshirae.

 

I am aware that there are basically two versions of this type of Koshirae: The massproduced one which usually comes with low grade Showato and the high quality one that has Urushi applied to the Tsukaito and a wood Saya with sand / urushi to it.

 

This one is however unique. That is I haven't seen a similiar one yet:

 

Much of the parts on it (e.g. Saya Ashis) are made of plastic!?! Just as the Saya itself!? The Tsukaito has a red laquer applied to it and there is no Same underneath it.

 

Does anybody have some additional information on this sort of Koshirae? It housed a Star Stamp Gendaito blade.

 

Regards,

 

Max

[Logan_86]

Forgive me if I'm wrong, as I'm new here and not yet very knowledgeable, but I can't imagine that Koshirae being more than 10 years old..

 

Does the blade it came with appear authentic?

 

 

 

Regards.

 

Logan H.

[Brian]

If the blade is a star stamped Gendaito, then I am confident the blade is 100% original, and probably the koshirae too.

Unusual yes, but during the war there could have been any number of expedient measures taken if there was a shortage of materials. The ito looks original, and maybe just a fanciful choice at the time. (Maybe it was heavily laquered later due to a very humid environment where he was serving?)

 

I think the best would be to maybe contact Ohmura san in Japan, as he is probably the expert on Gunto.

Link can be found on the links page. Once again it shows there is no hard and fast rule when it comes to wartime mountings.

 

Brian

[Logan_86]

Really? Huh.. Well I guess that goes to show that without a trained eye its easy to misjudge the quality/authenticity of Nihonto.

 

Learn a bit more everyday though

[Guest Nanshoku-Samurai]

Brian, thank you for your advice. Could you please post the link to his website here? I couldn't find it in the link directory of this site. Thank you!

[Brian]

Here you go:

http://www.h4.dion.ne.jp/~t-ohmura/gunto_002.htm

 

He is in Japan, so I think keep the English simple, and hopefully he will be able to shed some light.

Btw..he has a notice on his site that says he is unable to answer emails between Oct 4th and 22nd, and asks for emails to only be sent after the 22nd.

Simon Rowson knows him, and would have been able to pass on the enquiry, but he seems to have dropped off the planet lately

 

Brian