Help with blade, tassel and fittings

[Michaelr]

I wasn’t sure if this was the place to post this or the military section so moderator please move if necessary. I am looking for help of a recent purchase, the blade is Mumei and seems very heavy. The tassel is a brown/ tan-cream color ( Manchuria railroad ? ). It is mounted in military mounts, the scabbard being the early gloss paint but the interesting part is that all the fittings including the pierced Tsuba and menuki are a brown color. I have included a lot of pictures ( maybe too many ). I would like to thank everyone in advance for their help and time.

Mike R

Sword: Nagasaki- 26 3/8”

Nakago- 8 7/8”

Sori- 1/2”

Width- 1 1/8”

Thick- 5/16”

[Michaelr]

Second set of pictures. The tip may appear damaged in some pictures but it is not, it just got under the threads of the gray background

[Michaelr]

Last set of pictures. I hope that I didn’t post too many pictures but I thought more is better. Thank you all

[PNSSHOGUN]

Hi Michael, nice early Koshirae, I think it's a Type 94 or early Type 98. There is an almost identical Koshirae here: http://www.nipponto.co.jp/swords5/KT331491.htm

 

The tassel is very rare if it's cream and brown but remember the early tassels were notorious for not being colourfast so the dye would bleed out in rain. Check under the little slider above the crowns to see if any original colour remains.

[Dave R]

You can never post too many photo's of a sword.

[ChrisW]

^What Dave said. A lovely blade also!

[Michaelr]

John, I checked every possible place for fading and the color is all consistent. The cream color looks original and the brown is also in good shape and not faded either. Thank you all

MikeR

[PNSSHOGUN]

Well you definitely have a winner then, lovely high grade early mounts, nice blade and very rare tassel.

[Bruce Pennington]

This is an interesting gunto. The tassel is of the North China Railway Police (taken over and run by South Manchurian Railway), but the fittings don't have the railway emblem. Ohmura discusses it in length here: http://ohmura-study.net/308.html

 

He does state that many of the officers were actual army, which would explain the standard IJA fittings but I doubt an officer would carry a tan/brown tassel. It had to have been someone associated with the railway police though.

 

And this would be a good discussion over on the Military Swords forum.

[tbonesullivan]

Oh wow! That's really nice!  I've seen a lot of gunto like that, with the painted numbers ( 四 九) on the blade, and western numbers (4 9) on the koshirae.

 

Nice hamon on the blade. Good Boshi and Yokote as well. Is it probably oil tempered, or water?  I don't really see any grain in the blade so I guess arsenal forged?

[Michaelr]

Thank you David. I believe the blade to be Gendaito. But I am still a beginner

MikeR

[Bruce Pennington]

I'm adding this one to this thread, but I think there is a dedicated one to the cream/brown railway police topic.  I just can't find it.

 

Don't know if this is one of them, or just a really faded army tassel, or a bad fake.  But the colors are similar enough, I thought I'd post it.  It's currently found on this White's Auctions page

 

Civilian sword, no railway markings, just the tassel

[japanesewarriors]

That one is an example of a faded company officers tassel

 

[drb 1643]

I agree I have a similar one that if you look closely you can discern remnants of blue. In Mike’s original post the tassel is indeed an original rare railway one. I have seen it in person.

Tom

[Bruce Pennington]

I see what you mean, guys.  There is evidence of faint blue in the fringe strings and that bend in the strap just above the slider.  I normally take a closer look, but didn't this time.  Oh well, it was good to get the topic up for a refresher.

[PNSSHOGUN]

The tassel above looks very crudely made.