My First Gunto

[Dave R]

 Greetings all, and may I present to you my first Shin-Gunto, all my other blades are Nihonto so this is a foray into new territory for me.

 I know very little about this blade other than that it is a Showa era military blade, with a nagasa of 64cm or just a tad over 25 inches which is short for one of these, but it is the original length. 

 Only "signed" on the one side, but no one in my club was able to give me any ideas about the translation, I think it is out of area for most of them. Some idea of date or maker would be greatly appreciated. I am not expecting or wanting anything special, I am just hoping for a decent war time blade. A close inspection revealed no stamps of any kind so I think it's an earlier blade made before the stamps were obligatory. 

[Grey Doffin]

Okada Kaneyoshi Saku.

Grey

[cisco-san]

Hi Dave,

 

from Markus` book:

KANEYOSHI (兼義), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Gifu – “Kaneyoshi” (兼義), real name Okada Takeshi (岡田武), born October 20th 1908, younger brother of Okeada Kanesada (岡田兼定), he worked as guntō smith and died March 15th 1972, jōkō no retsu (Akihide), Fourth Seat at the 6th Shinsaku Nihontō Denrankai (新作日本刀展覧会, 1941)

 

and from John S. Slough´ book:

 

 

[Pinmaster]

Congrats on your new find

[Dave R]

 Am I right in thinking that the lack of any type of stamp denotes an earlier blade, or does it have some other significance?