Museum Research

[Shamsy]

Hi all,

 

I'm currently going through some Japanese swords from a military museum to see what I can help them with. If you have a look in the General Nihonto forum, I'm going to post them all there. Just a quick post to let you all know, as I'm sure some of you are as interested as I am.

 

I'm hoping to get a look at a generals sword too...

[PNSSHOGUN]

Generals sword sounds exciting!

[Shamsy]

Sword 1:

(These pictures are more for the military buffs)

 

Note the 'Roman numerals' II on the habaki, seppa, fuchi and tsuba@Bruce Pennington

[Bugyotsuji]

I II III in Roman is 一　二　三 in Japanese/Chinese. The Katakana character オ ("Oh") is pretty clear.

[Bruce Pennington]

@Shamsy - good to see you again!  What an amazing gunto! 

 

And the Roman numeral markings are an interesting development.  Looking in the files, I have 2 other habaki from Toyokawa kaigunto with Roman numerals.  More Interesting-er, both of the other examples had different shop logo.  Soooooo ...... was the Roman marking done by the arsenal?  If so, why???  Was the style of marking dictated by the arsenal?  That may make more sense:

 

 

[Bruce Pennington]

And yet, there are Army examples too, so maybe the practice was just more common than I picture it.