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Custom Kyu Tanto?


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10 hours ago, IJASWORDS said:

Dawson page 301, Tokyo Police Lieutenant.

Neil,

I saw that one too, but these are pretty specific.  Slight variations in the pattern signify different things.  Dawson's has 3 levels of the rays - outer, middle, inner - whereas this tanto only has 2 levels. 

PoliceCollage.jpg

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a odd item, it has both army and police symbols, it has both type 8 and tpe 19 design traits. 

perosnally i dislike the design on the guard, looks odd but it does share work styles of a sword

s guard on page 372 on dawsons " titled unidentifed custom swords of the  goverment and civil officals " the sukura look very simular in design and carving

 

so is it police ? is it army imo "police"   as army dirks are not really proven imho. on the other hand police, and other gov sections all have documneted kyu style dirks 

 

secondly theres no mekugi? so check the pomel end cap to see if its a threaded version ?

 

more photos please

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On 12/8/2020 at 6:19 PM, Bruce Pennington said:

Must be nice to have your own “Komiya”. Ha!

 

so do you think this is purely army, or is it police with an army emblem on the backstrap?

 

 "Must be nice to have your own “Komiya”. Ha!"     Typo, I blame the new kitten sitting on my arm 

P15-11-20_14.53.jpg

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Thanks Dave for passing on the information about the emblem. An early version of the army sunburnt. A custom kyu-gunto for an army officer then, one who decided to mount a tanto blade (is it actually a tanto or is it a dirk?). I don't recall seeing another kyu with a tanto blade before (again, unless it's a dirk), so very rare. An absolutely lovely and unique item. I've postulated before that my own kai-gunto with the o-tanto blade must have been an important family heirloom.  Purely speculative of course, but perhaps the same thing here? Would love to see that nakago and what it can tell us about the blade history and perhaps clarify what it should be rightly classified as.

20191228_173248.jpg

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Here's Nick's take on the sunburst: "

The rising sun you show in the photo is basically in the army configuration, while the illustration you put beside it is the police type with a much smaller orb. Police rising suns consistently had a tiny orb in the center as shown below.

Regarding the staggering of the ray lengths, the army's version did change size and designs several times after 1880, so a 2 length version might be one such later version. However, 3 ray lengths had been the standard norm since the institution of the Order of the Rising Sun, so a 2 length variant would be highly irregular."
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