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Type 44 Katana + Information request


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Hello everyone. This is my first post here and also my first blade. I first purchased this blade at collector's firearms in Houston, Texas. What I was told this was is a Japanese "naval landing sword", but I am not sure if this is entirely accurate or a selling point. The mounts have a screw mekugi and a wood pin mekugi. I did some novice level research and I believe I have a Type 44 katana, but I am looking for a lot more detailed information than I can muster. I was told the mei read "Ske-sada" and "9th year of Meiji", but I would like to verify this by a non-salesman, as well as anything else I can possibly know about the blade. I did see a little bit about a star stamp on similar blades, but I have looked the tang over for such a stamp and I have not discovered one. I did take a minute to attempt to translate the mei but it is far beyond my skill level at this point.

 

I primarily buy and sell firearms, and I currently want to expand into authentic Japanese blades over time but understandably it is overwhelming at every turn. I'm planning on keeping this blade as an heirloom and want to know everything I can about it. Any tips, history or resources pertaining to this blade would be very appreciated. Thanks very much!

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Hello, your sword is signed "YoshiChika". There was a yoshichika with a similar writing style from Seki City in Noshu Province, and I think its the same guy (but no way to prove that)

As you suspected your sword is NOT a "naval landing forces sword".  Its an Army sword, called a type 3 or sometimes called by collectors a '44 pattern. 

The date on your sword is "Showa ju ku nen san gatsu"  which translates to "March 1944".   I didn't see a stamp on the tang, but I suspect that there's one. 

 

   A  real Japanese military sword, Good luck collecting!

 

    Tom M 

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Thank you very much Tom! This is just what I was looking for. I am surprised how far he could mislead me from his translation, but I figured he thought I wouldn't check up on it. It seems like I lucked out quite well. The period is even Showa not Meiji which is quite interesting!

 

Is the smith you are referencing Minamoto YoshiChika? I looked at this resource for this: https://www.japaneseswordindex.com/yoshchik.htm. Minamoto carries some significance I believe and from this resource it seems this particular line has created blades since the 10th century.

 

Also, I would like to know the process you followed in translating the mei, did you use a resource in reading the kanji or did you commit to learning the language? I have a small knowledge of Kanji number characters from my experience with Arisaka and Murata type rifles, but not much after that.

 

Thanks very much, you have been very helpful!

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Your sword is not made by Minamoto YoshiChika he is a well thought of Gendai sword smith, who used different kanji in his name. (I have a sword made by his son who was also a very good swordsmith)  Minamoto is an old Japanese clan name that was used by unrelated swordsmiths for centuries.  As to translating sword signatures there are a number of articules on this site that walk you through how to approach sword translations.  There are quite a number of good reference books on the market, I would start with John Yumoto's "the Samurai Sword a Handbook"      ( my first book and still a good one).  John Slough's "An Oshigata Book of Modern Japanese Swordsmiths 1868-1945".  Fuller an Gregory's "Military Swords of Japan 1868-1945.  Jim Dawson's "Swords of Imperial Japan 1868-1945"  Yumoto's book is general reference with some kanji, Slough's book is all about sword translations, the others are focused on military swords.  There are members on this board who sell books and they would be good sources for books and advice on other books, and they will treat you right!  My main advise buy books and read, read, read. BUT.... be careful this hobby is addicting and expensive!

  Good luck and welcome, Tom M. 

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The star stamp would be a great thing if you had one, the're usually pretty easy to see. Some other stamps are small and can be missed, I would suspect that your sword would have a "seki" stamp indicating a non-traditional made sword.  Look in the military section of this board, I think Bruce has lots of stuff on stamps and general info. 

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Ibex,

How about going to the settings section and inputing a first name so we can really chat with a person. Not being trite, it's forum rules, and we really do like to talk to real people! ;)

 

Here's a great read on the Rinji/Contengency Model/Type 3/'44 Model from Nick Komiya: http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/Japanese-militaria/legally-rebutting-existence-type-3-army-officers-sword-708745/

 

Does your rig have the double release button or just a single? Would love to see a picture of the fittings.

 

Yours doesn't appear to have the star at first glance. Recommend taking everything off including the habaki. Sometimes stamps hide up higher on the nakago (tang). Here's a picture of my star stamp. You may also have small stamps on the back edge (mune) of the nakago.post-3487-0-71715000-1555423749_thumb.jpg

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Thanks Tom M for the book selections, I will definitely get a few and see what information I can find out.

 

I would like to find out more about this smith if possible, but all information I can find appears to pertain to Minamoto YoshiChika which makes research difficult.

 

On to Bruce's question, It looks like it has a single push button retainer, which also came to me broken and it does not appear to retain the saya. I'm not sure if it is fixable, but it if damages the value at all to repair I will likely keep it as-is. I suspect that it was damaged when it was disassembled to inspect the mei, but at what point I am not sure. The handle is very stiff and not very easily removed, usually taking a soft rubber mallet to remove. I'll see about removing the pieces above the tang to see if the stamp is hidden, as well as take another picture of the mounts for a better overall grasp of what I have here.

 

Thanks very much everyone.

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If this is the last descendant of the line as said here:

 

https://nihontoclub.com/smiths/YOS1067

 

Then he worked from 1912 to 1926, which is before the stamp system was established, so no stamp could make sense, but this one may be another guy as I have a lot of difficulty comparing the two sets of kanji.

 

EDIT: obviously can’t be the same guy if yours is dated 1944, which I’ve just noticed. So here’s the right one (and yes, he’s one of the 209 Seki Swordsmiths who worked during the Shōwa WW2 era):

https://nihontoclub.com/smiths/YOS18

Not much info I’m afraid.

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Just to help out, this smith Yoshichika is definitely a later WWII showato maker at Seki. His name is Yoshioka Tetsujiro and he was registered as an army swordsmith in Seki on April 26 1943. This info is from Jinsoo Kims's link on the info pages above. This type of work is showato and does not have the star stamp (which are hand-made) but often have small arsenal inspection stamps on the tang side and/or mune...often including 'gi' for Gifu, the prefecture that has Seki town.

Hope this helps,

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I just checked the tang again today, and I do not see a definite seki/showato stamp. I have some new pictures of the overall blade/mounts and a closeup of a stamp that appears to be a Z? It may have been stamped so light that it didn't leave a mark on the tang at all. Since this is a 1944 blade it should have a seki stamp shouldn't it?

 

On a side note, I have a picture of the Tsuba with a stamp on it, I am not sure if that helps or not but I would like to know what the stamp means.

 

Thanks very much for all the info so far! I am taking note of everything and I plan to print out copies of this thread to keep with the blade containing all the history on it.

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The “Z” appears to simply be bare metal where the tsuka rubs, wearing off rust. The stamp is more likely to be where I’ve circled.

 

The tsuba stamp is “Gifu” which was a province where Seki was located.

 

While required by law, stamping wasn’t practiced 100% of the time, and while rare, the stamps were sometimes removed.

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Thanks very much for your reply Bruce. I suppose that confirms that this is a Seki blade if the tsuba has a Gifu stamp on it. I think it's interesting that they didn't leave a visible stamp if it was legally required to do so. There are no visible marks where someone recently could have removed the stamp, so if it was added and removed, it must have been done around the time it was created. Thanks very much.

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