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A mei, a very odd/questionable Nakago, a weird mark and katakana writing.


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Came across this strange nakago. Figured I'd share it here and see what people think. So it has a Mei I can't read (tomo something?) that looks crude, the Nakano shape seems a bit off but not totally wrong, someone wrote something in katakana and there is a strange mark. What do people think? As far as I see the katakana reads "Skyaka Suran" maybe "Suraso" which I have no idea what that means.

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Katakana like that are often associated with "Island swords" so perhaps this was made on one of the occupied islands for an officer needing a replacement. The fact it seems to have normal issue Type 98 parts is unusual for these Island Swords as they often are found with theater made Koshirae.

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My bad, my new phones auto correct fights me when it comes to Japanese words. Had it spelled right 2 outta 3, not the best, not the worst.

 

Interesting about the island swords having katakana on them. I'll see what I can pull up on the history. Another thing with this blade is you can tell the saya is much too long for the blade itself. So could be a post war put together job or like you mentioned a possible mid war emergency replacement by a soldier.

 

Also the punches in the seppa seem a bit crude as well.

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Upper Left Column

スマラン = Sumaran = Semarang.  Semarang can refer either to the city 市 or the province 州 in Central Java.

 

Upper Right Column

シャワ ? = shawa ? = Java ?.

 

Works Consulted

Fuller, Richard, and Ron Gregory. Military Swords of Japan, 1868–1945. London, GB: Arms and Armour, 1986. See page 123 for an oshigata.

 

Fuller, Richard, and Ron Gregory. Japanese Military and Civil Swords and Dirks. Charlottesville, Va.: Howell Press, 1997. Page 266.
 

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I am starting to think the last character after Java could be the kanji character 刀 and not the katakana character カ.  Thoughts anyone?

 

"Well, greetings from Indonesia"

http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/f216/well-greetings-indonesia-727429-post1949335/#post1949335

 

"A Javan Second World War Katana"

http://andrewhartleyfinearts.co.uk/hartleys/lot/view/id/276487/

 

Edit: Added a second link to the Hartleys sword.

Edited by Kiipu
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Thomas I think you are right. I agree it is intended to be ジャワ刀. The sword cross-linked in post #12 clearly has the dakuten, which make the entire inscription make sense. Adam's sword in the original post in this thread should also be read the same way ジャワ刀 スマラン. The problem with the sword posted by Adam, is that the inscription is so crude (and missing the dakuten) that it feels like it was not carved by a Japanese person. I would be very dubious of the inscription. The sword itself may be a war relic, but the inscription feels like it was intended to deceive. 

 

Side note, the sword cross-linked in post #13 has the exact same inscription, but the poster misidentified the ジャワ刀 as well. 

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My bad, my new phones auto correct fights me when it comes to Japanese words. Had it spelled right 2 outta 3, not the best, not the worst.

 

Interesting about the island swords having katakana on them. I'll see what I can pull up on the history. Another thing with this blade is you can tell the saya is much too long for the blade itself. So could be a post war put together job or like you mentioned a possible mid war emergency replacement by a soldier.

 

Also the punches in the seppa seem a bit crude as well.

 

 Can you post a pic' of the kissaki, I think this might be a field O-suriage on a genuine Shin-Gunto.

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