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General Yamashita the Gunto collector


PNSSHOGUN

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He must've been tired lugging all of these swords around......

 

1: "Field sword" this sold for $95,000usd - https://issuu.com/dreamedia/docs/145-issuu/2
 

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2: "Presentation sword" fantastic special order sword by Imai Sadashige - https://pamplincollection.org/2020/12/14/general-tomoyuki-yamashita/
 

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3: Sword in the MacArthur "attributed" to Yamashita

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4: "Swords surrendered by Japanese Officers, the closest two belonging to General Yamashita, August 1945." - apparently he was an Admiral as well

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5: His actual sword, now at Westpoint academy:

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I love the marketing lingo in the auction description, like "ancient samurai blade from the 19th century"! Ha! So, made in the 1800s?  Not what I'd call "ancient."  And the "very rare double layered" saya tip cover ....... except ALL leather covers had the saya tip layer too.  Nothing of which takes away from the actual gunto, just lamenting the display of hype by the auction house.

 

As an aside, interesting to see a rank tassel, on what appears to be a cane sword!  That sword of "Admiral Yamashita" has the black leather saya cover.  Nice.

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 It's a bit like shoes, you need 2 pairs for work, and 2 casual pairs, and at least one pair for formal occasions. So you need a parade sword, a fighting sword and a sword for presentations and if possible a spare or two for the unexpected! 

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 A little addendum here that may be relevant. Many years ago I met one of the guys who had guarded Himmler just after his arrest, and wanting a souvenir he raided Himmler's suitcase and took the Wehrmacht penknife from it, and in order to avoid his theft being discovered then replacing it with another that he had picked up on his way through Germany, . Later he found out that every squaddie in the detail had done just the same. Someone had Himmler's penknife....... but no one knew who!

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4 hours ago, drb 1643 said:

I was just visiting the UDT/SEAL museum in Fort Pierce FL. Here is another one of his swords! Sorry for the poor pictures. They were taken with my phone camera in poor lighting and behind a glass case.

Tom

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So he was an admiral after all!

 

On another note, this gunto with worn off lacquer of the same’ might explain some of the “white“ handled Swords we see in pictures of Navy officers. I can’t believe I had not thought of it, but I own a navy one where the lacquer is worn off like this as well.

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9 hours ago, drb 1643 said:

I was just visiting the UDT/SEAL museum in Fort Pierce FL. Here is another one of his swords! Sorry for the poor pictures. They were taken with my phone camera in poor lighting and behind a glass case.

Tom

 

 

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The tag say's 铃木大尉 Suzuki Captain

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  • 1 year later...

Yep I reckon yr spot on ... there was a big (no pun intended) difference in his weight between your c1930's pic and probably any of the later war pics.

 

You would think the stress of loosing his grip on the Phillipines would have kept his weight down in the final years. Or maybe he took comfort in eating his worries away.

 

Just an observation that is more noticeable with Yamashita than most others of similar rank.

R

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  • 6 months later...
5 hours ago, PNSSHOGUN said:

Hi Tom, looks like the Type 94 from this picture:

 

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It's interesting to note that, in the lower photo, the sword hangers coming through the slot in the greatcoats are obviously the black leather dress belts with red inner facing. (Which, I guess, makes sense as this looks like a parade of some sort.)

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