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Very Unusual Gunto Koshirae


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I definitely defer to the gunto experts (which I certainly am not). My comment was more along the lines of "I didn't know such a thing existed".

But for sure an interesting innovation. Must have had a problem with the sayas accumulating dirt and water during the war? Interesting piece.

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Wayne and bill have made good guesses and there are a few good indication that should make one wary. The polished saya mouth cover and tsuba stand out as a means to cover the fact something has been recently altered. The characters carved on the saya mouth cover are also not consistent with other examples I've seen.

 

Having said that, this is a known and perfectly legitimate pattern of saya retention. It's documented in Military Swords of Japan F&G. A hard call honestly. The kuchi-gane looks quite legitimate and the raised section would be somewhat problematic to manufacture I imagine.

 

I'd go with legitimate, though the highly polished tsuba and unusual cover would prevent me purchasing.

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  • 4 weeks later...

This one may interest you. It is in my collection and was acquired from a family in Japan many years ago. It was taken to Iida Koendo (well know craftsman in sword world) and he recognized the Koshirae as having been made in his fathers shop. He then introduced the current mukansa fittings master who is the son (Miyajima-san) of the fitting master who made the fittings. They shared family photos of the shop and various saya and fittings makers, many of them well known in the sword world. These types of Koshirae were often special order, but well know at the time.

 

Enjoy,

Brent

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