Nlf Gunto Discussion

[John C]

29 minutes ago, Bruce Pennington said:

looks as if it's a 95 with a leather covered saya.

If the distribution of type 95s as reenlistment gifts were a common practice, it at least gives us another explanation as to how swords were brought back other than as "war trophies." 

 

John C.

[Bruce Pennington]

15 hours ago, John C said:

If the distribution of type 95s as reenlistment gifts were a common practice, it at least gives us another explanation as to how swords were brought back other than as "war trophies." 

 

John C.

Nice learning another reason/method for passing these out.  I think it was Fuller that described the fact that of the 600,000 swords collected by the Allies, they saved half (I think he stated somewhere around 260,000) to be "distributed."  Your example is clearly one of many ways they must have passed them out.

[Marcin]

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/-2075970B25
another one

[Bruce Pennington]

Good one.  I hate it when the sellers don't post nakago shots.  Fortunately, in the description, they say it's anchor stamped and painted "79."

[Nazar]

Another one. 

 

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/sword-authentic-wwii-Japanese-kai-4933955248

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bruce Pennington]

Thanks Nazar!  This one is interesting because of the crack in the saya showing it was made with lacquer over cloth.

 

I checked mine, and it was made of solid wood, then lacquer. 

[Nazar]

 

My kai-gunto saya is also solid wood. I wonder if that cloth was used as putty (to make the surface more even) or for reinforcement?

[Marcin]

Probably to speed up production. Urushi with black dye (roiro urushi?) on cloth gives thicker layer.

Edited May 18 by Rawa

[Justin Grant]

Urushi on fabric is a well known Japanese Armor trick. You will find all sorts of pieces this way. It makes them strong and water resistant. 

[eternal_newbie]

13 minutes ago, Justin Grant said:

Urushi on fabric is a well known Japanese Armor trick. You will find all sorts of pieces this way. It makes them strong and water resistant.

 

You can even find some koshirae where the tsukamaki has been lacquered, ostensibly for the same purpose.

[Marcin]

Boys look in other thread t98 with lacquered saya, clearly fabric under lacquer

 

 

[Scogg]

On 5/17/2026 at 10:37 AM, Nazar said:

Another one. 

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/sword-authentic-wwii-Japanese-kai-4933955248

 

 

 

Apologies for drifting off topic a little, but it looks like this one was so aggressively cleaned that the spine has gone from iori-mune to maru-mune or mitsu-mune.

 

Amongst wartime Gendaito and Showato, do we ever see maru-mune or mitsu-mune? I’m not sure I recall ever seeing something other than iori-mune. 
 

Best,

-Sam

 

 

[ROKUJURO]

11 hours ago, Scogg said:

......it looks like this one was so aggressively cleaned that the spine has gone from iori-mune to maru-mune or mitsu-mune......

That was the guy who "cleaned" his car with an angle-grinder....

[John C]

17 hours ago, Scogg said:

spine has gone from iori-mune to maru-mune or mitsu-mune.

It seems the mune-machi (and ha-machi for that matter) is deeply cut. I wonder if the blade were a little too wide and it was done to fit a scabbard? Otherwise, I would think iori-mune would be standard.

 

John C.

[ROKUJURO]

4 hours ago, John C said:

....I wonder if the blade were a little too wide and it was done to fit a scabbard? ....

John,

in that case, wouldn't it be easier to take some material off of the wooden scabbard liner?.

[Scogg]

Indeed Jean, maybe "cleaned" was not the best word choice for this situation.

"Abraded" or maybe "grinded to oblivion" would have been more appropriate  
-Sam

 

[John C]

2 hours ago, ROKUJURO said:

in that case, wouldn't it be easier to take some material off of the wooden scabbard liner?

Possibly, yes. As a woodworker it would be my first thought. But the wood is very thin on those so maybe not enough "fleisch". We'll never know I guess.

 

John C. 

[Nazar]

Yet one. This one is curious because of habaki fitment. I wonder if the reason for this mismatch is that they started to run out of parts that more or less fit each other? 

 

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/Japanese-ww2-navy-kai-gunto-sword-4728816675

 

 

 

 

 

[ROKUJURO]

Nazar,

I saw this as well, and I would like to see if the MACHI truly align. 

[Bruce Pennington]

Yes, you can see on the zoom:

 

It looks to me as if the habaki is just misaligned, shifted upward too much.

[ROKUJURO]

Thank you Bruce,

I can see it now. It is just a wrong HABAKI.
It could be dangerous to handle the sword as the blade could come loose and the MEKUGI could just fall out.

[vajo]

The habaki didn't fit to the blade. Its not original.

[Marcin]

Double anchor stamp, did We had it already? It’s hard to memorize 23 pages 

https://www.antique-swords.com/zw52-ww2-Japanese-naval-officers-kai-gunto-gendaito-belts/

Could this blade have been replaced?

Edited May 23 by Rawa

[Bruce Pennington]

7 hours ago, Rawa said:

did We had it already?

That's a new one, thanks!  I've written to the seller to see if he'll give us a full nakago shot.  The belt is an unknown, as to whether the sword shop added it, or the G.I., or a post-war owner.

[John C]

1 hour ago, Bruce Pennington said:

That's a new one,

Bruce:

What were the differences again between the small and large anchors?

John C.

[Bruce Pennington]

John,

We don't know.  All we could do is make a systematic survey of naval swords to see if there is a timeline difference in use.  Not even sure if one could identify location differences as most of these are mumei.  

[Nazar]

@Bruce Pennington, it seems that there were a whole bunch of "NLF" swords on IMA USA. Some of them are quite peculiar. Dunno if you have them in your file. To not overflood this topic with pictures I'll post only links with short description. 

 

1.Toyokawa anchor stamp, painted number: https://www.ima-usa.com/products/original-wwii-Japanese-navy-officer-p1937-kai-gunto-katana-sword-with-scabbard-matched-number-40?variant=42054952190021

 

2.  Toyokawa anchor stamp, 272 stamp, painted number: https://www.ima-usa.com/products/original-wwii-Japanese-navy-officer-p1937-kai-gunto-katana-sword-with-scabbard-matched-number-21?variant=39671068459077

 

3.  Toyokawa anchor stamp, painted number: https://www.ima-usa.com/products/original-wwii-Japanese-navy-officer-p1937-kai-gunto-katana-samurai-sword-with-scabbard-matched-number-98?variant=39349716090949

 

4.  Toyokawa anchor stamp, 117 stamp, painted number, kai-gunto kabutogane: https://www.ima-usa.com/products/original-wwii-Japanese-navy-officer-p1937-kai-gunto-katana-sword-with-scabbard-matched-number-48?variant=39854792310853

 

5.  Toyokawa anchor stamp, painted number: https://www.ima-usa.com/products/original-wwii-Japanese-navy-officer-p1937-kai-gunto-katana-samurai-sword-with-scabbard-matching-numbers-4?variant=31995236057157

 

6.  Toyokawa anchor stamp, painted number, Nihonto tsuba: https://www.ima-usa.com/products/original-wwii-Japanese-navy-officer-p1937-kai-gunto-katana-sword-with-ancient-crossguard-scabbard?variant=31929855606853

 

7.  Toyokawa anchor stamp, painted number: https://www.ima-usa.com/products/original-wwii-Japanese-navy-officer-p1937-kai-gunto-katana-sword-with-scabbard-matched-number-76?variant=40033344684101

 

8.  Toyokawa anchor stamp, painted number: https://www.ima-usa.com/products/original-wwii-Japanese-navy-officer-p1937-kai-gunto-katana-sword-with-damaged-scabbard-matched-number-55?variant=41101183385669

 

9.  Toyokawa anchor stamp, painted number, unusual colour of ito: https://www.ima-usa.com/products/original-wwii-Japanese-navy-officer-p1937-kai-gunto-katana-sword-with-scabbard-matched-number-4-1?variant=41567685115973

Edited July 30 by Nazar

[Bruce Pennington]

Wow, Nazar, I can't believe they had so many of these!  I had only 2 of them already from other auction houses earlier.  

 

Thank you for that!

[Bruce Pennington]

Interesting one shared by Rob @NotANinja HERE.  The auction house didn't post a photo of the other side, so it might not have the black painted number.  But it's one of a few on file with a stamped number.  And some of them use this odd font with large-small-large numbers.  So, that, plus sarute, plus leather saya cover.  Oh, and the anchor is upside down!: