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Star stamp research

luisboni

By luisboni
in Military Swords of Japan

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Bruce Pennington Grand Master

Bruce Pennington

Posted
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Is it Luis? Please go to your settings and add at least a first name, forum rules, thanks!

 

It is a peculiar star, isn't it! It actually looks like it was hot-stamped into the steel, rather than a cold stamp.

 

There are some guys who are quite knowledgable on the RJT operation, which is where you'll see lots of star stamped blades. Maybe one of them will take a look at it. If you search "star stamp" or "RJT" on the forum, you should be able to find them, and maybe shoot them a PM. Do you you the smith's name on this one? Was he an RJT smith? If not, that would invalidate the star.

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Bruce Pennington Grand Master

Bruce Pennington

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Japaneseswordindex has Kiyotsugu listed in the RJT page:

 

The following are known blades with star stamps by Jumei Tosho swordsmiths.

Miyairi Shohei (Akihira)

Niigata Akihisa

Hiragawa Akimitsu

Kasuga Seizou Tokoro Harumoto

Chikuzen (no) Kuni ju Muto Hidehiro

Hidemine

Chikuzen ju Kajihara Hiromitsu

Ikusa no Kajitsu Hisakuni

Yoshu Seiunshi Hisatsugu

Noshu ju Kuriyama Kaneaki

(star + Kitae stamp)

Kaneharu

Noshu ju Kanehide (star + Seki stamp)

Seki ju Kanehide

Noshu ju Kanehisa

(Kojima) Kanemichi (star +Showa stamp)

Noshu Seki ju Kanemichi

Takeuchi Kanemitsu

Seki Kanemoto

Kanenaga (star +Seki stamp)

Noshu ju Kanenobu

Noshu Seki ju Kanenori

Kaneshige (star + Seki stamp)

Noshu ju (Morita) Kaneshige

Seki ju Kanetomo (star + Seki stamp)

Noshu ju (Murayama) Kanetoshi

(star + Seki stamp)

Gunma Imae Kanetsugu

Joshu ju Imai Kanetsugu

Seki ju Kanetsugu

Tsushima Kanetsugu

Kawai Kaneyoshi

Inoue Katsukiyo

Tokyo Dai Ichi Rikugun

Zoheisho Katsunobu

Yoshida Katsunori

Sanjo ju Fujiwara Kazunori

(may also be read as Ichinori)

Oki Kuni ju Kikumitsu

(star + tai stamp)

Senshu Kiyokane

Choshu ju Kiyokune

Izumo (no) Kuni Kiyomitsu

Choshu ju Kiyotsugu <<<<<<<<-----------

Hizen ju Kunimitsu

Mori Kunitoshi

Noshu ju Kunitoshi

(same as Mori Kunitoshi)

Sendai Kunitsugu

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Bruce Pennington Grand Master

Bruce Pennington

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Showa22 pictures don't bode well for the authenticity.

 

John, or Luis, is that the source of this blade - Showa22? If so, that adds another layer of doubt.

 

It is true that many of the RJT smiths made both gendaito and showato. So it IS possible this was a showato, non-star, blade that someone post-war put the star to increase the value.

 

I still say though, the stamp looks hot-stamped the way the metal splooshes (that official swordmith term!) around the stamp. I doubt any of our favorite shysters can hot-stamp a blade.

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reeder Proficient

reeder

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It looks like a gendaito by an RJT smith to me. Dated, more than 2 character mei so it certainly appears to meet the requirements to have received a star stamp. I have a type 3 with these same type of plain copper fuchi and kashira that has a star stamped Hiromasa blade. Iirc I’ve seen one or 2 more examples of these fittings with star stamped blades (I believe another Hiromasa and a Kanehide). They’re not very common compared to the other type 3 mounts.

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Bruce Pennington Grand Master

Bruce Pennington

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When we started studying the kikusui "stamp" as a group, we realized it wasn't a stamp at all, but each one was handcrafted. Even stamps like the Seki and some Type 95 stamps have variations. I wouldn't be surprised if we found, upon further comparison to many examples, that the Star has plenty of variations too. I could be wrong, Luis. You are the one studying them. Fill us in on your progress as you go. I would enjoy learning more on them.

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Ed Harbulak Collaborator

Ed Harbulak

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There were several inspectors examining and inspecting blades make by RJT smiths. It's reasonable to think each inspector would have had his own individual stamp and preferred place to apply the stamp. Variations should therefore be expected in both the stamps and location where the stamp was applied. 

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Ed Harbulak Collaborator

Ed Harbulak

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No Chris, the inspectors traveled in person to the sword smith's shop, inspected the blades and stamped them there.  My understand is that there were several inspectors covering different parts of the country, where ever there was an RJT smith located. The inspected and stamped blades were then sent to various arsenals to be mounted. Chris Bowen has written quite a bit about how it was done. There might even be some details in one of the older NMB discussions.  

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Bruce Pennington Grand Master

Bruce Pennington

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Luis,

Don't know if you have this one already, but it's on a blade witht the mei: "Iwami no Kuni no ju Yoshikiyo saku," and the date was March 1945.

 

There is a "Tai" stamp above the star, from the Izumo Seiko steel works. Located In Shimane.

 

Located here: http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/6628-iwami-yoshikoyo-gendaito/

 

post-3487-0-96054200-1572613817_thumb.jpg

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