Kai Gunto Tang Questions

[Bruce Pennington]

11 hours ago, Jcstroud said:

Recently read in page3 through page 5 of @mecox Japanese Sword Pdf #2 there is a statement saying the Takayama to was used for cadet training .FYI 

John S.😁

John,

Can you be more specific about which document?  I've read through Mal's "Japanese NAVAL SWORDS, Swordsmiths & Workshops, Part 2", and on page 10 there is this paragraph, but no mention of training swords:

 

"Takayama Tanren Jo
The main tosho working in the Takayama forge producing stainless steel there were Ishihara Masanao and Hattori Kazuichi Masahiro. Masahiro was born in Meiji 40 (1907) in Seki, and registered as a Seki tosho on 25 August, 1942 (Showa 17). It is not known is he was related to Hattori Zenjiro. Another Seki smith working there earlier in the war, was Shinoda Ujifusa, who was also very productive with Showato in Seki. This forge was set up by Masayoshi Takayama to produce swords for the Navy with a focus (at least early war) to produce his Takayama-to style sword. He was a sword combat training advisor to the Navy and later the Army. It is presumed this forge was somewhere near Seki. This topic is discussed in the earlier article on Japanese Naval Swords."

[Jcstroud]

4 hours ago, Bruce Pennington said:

John,

Can you be more specific about which document?  I've read through Mal's "Japanese NAVAL SWORDS, Swordsmiths & Workshops, Part 2",

Ok sorry that I was a little vague,the document was dated

March,15 2021 (update) It seems there was a part 1 update on this update on page 3 a section titled "Takayama Tanrenjo Workshop " paragraph 2 line3 states that" The sword was used  in Military batto-jutsu training by an iai school called Takayama Ryu" 

Edited September 23, 2023 by Jcstroud
Error

[Bruce Pennington]

1 hour ago, Jcstroud said:

March,15 2021 (update) It seems there were 2 part 2's

Ok, I believe you, but when I look for it in the Downloads section, all I can find is the February 24, 2021 edition, with the Takayama paragraph on page 10.  Can you give me a link to the document?

 

Here's the only one I see:

 

[Jcstroud]

1 hour ago, Bruce Pennington said:

Can you give me a link

Arsenal stamps pg 40 near the bottom of the page.😁 you will find this update. How Mal says "cheerio"

[Jcstroud]

 

[Bruce Pennington]

Thanks John!

 

I see now, the section you mentioned.  We can see that they used the Takayama Forge blades at the school.  It also shows that they were bought for active use by the Navy and Army.  So, widely used, to include the school.  

[Jcstroud]

Both documents extremely valuable research material kudos to  Mal and his lovely wife for providing us this learning opportunity! Now if I could just stop confusing my pdf's 😁thank you @mecox

[Jcstroud]

6 hours ago, Bruce Pennington said:

We can see that they used the Takayama Forge blades at the school.  It also shows that they were bought for active use by the Navy and Army.  So, widely used, to include the school.  

Also found it interesting that there were some made in standard navy koshirai with modified overweight,with thicker kissakis standard length blades and long 1shaku

Nakago some with 1 mekugi others with 2 see example in the pdf :a Masanao photo from the Ohmura study belonging  to Steven Christensen.

[Jcstroud]

On 9/23/2023 at 5:40 PM, Jcstroud said:

standard length blades and long 1shaku

Nakago some with 1 mekugi others with 2 see example

Iwas curious to know what the measurements  were of the sword Takayama Masakichi used using the photos was able to estimate a sword of 2.1 shaku based on the nakago length of 1 shaku of course it is an estimate but interesting none the less.  😁