Another Type 3 gunto by RJT smith Zuiho

[zuiho]

Hello, 

         The post by "Butch " on March 27 featuring a type 3 gunto by Zuiho has prompted me to 

contribute my example. Listed below is my personal assessment and may not be entirely accurate

but here goes:

 

BLADE TYPE:  Type 3 ww2 shin gunto by RJT approved smith ( as indicated by star stamp)

SHAPE (sugata): Iorimune

PERIOD:   Showa WW2                                                              PROVINCE:

LENGTH (nagasa):   27 1/8 "   , 87 cm.                             WIDTH  (machi) : 1 5/16", 33 mm.

                                                                                                      (motohaba) :    7/8", 23 mm.

THICKNESS:                                         CURVATURE (sori) : shallow  5/8", 15 mm.

FORGING (jihada/kitae) :  itame

Temper line ( hamon/yakiba) :   Nioi based suguha midare with rough tobiyaki

 Note:  Partial  Choji-midare utsuri  appears to be present on both sides.

            (  I call it utsuri as no line of nie or nioi is present )

POINT (boshi) :   ko maru on chu kissaki

TANG (nakago) : iriyamagata , kesho yasurimei

        SIGNATURE:    signed on ura : ZUI HO SAKU  with STAR stamp above Zui.

        DATED on omote: Kinoe or 21 ^st  (year since start of zodiacal cycle), SARU (year of the

            Monkey ), NI  (  2nd),  GATSU   ( month) .  This zodiacal date is equivalent to March, 1944.

 

REMARKS :   An assembly number 435   stamped on mune behind hamachi.

Double press studs present  on saya. Two screws placed one on each side hold eleven inch tsuka.

Tsuka has wine-colored lacquered ito over imitation same' .  

Notes :       The other smith name of Zuiho is Shigefusa. His real name is Kojima Kameta and lived in

Tokushima prefecture. He had 5 students at his forge.

  Reference: Samurai Sword Kanetoyo Art Museum website, (Tokyo, Japan) .

           Cheers, William G.

[francois2605]

Hello William, that's a nice Type 3 you have here. 

 

Some minor remarks regarding your description:

 

Shin-gunto refers to a type 94/98 koshirae, yours is a type 3.

 

 

The sugata is shinogi-zukuri, iori-mune only describes the geometry of the sword's back.

 

 

The nagasa is too long and cannot be correct, gunto normally have a length between 60 and 65 cm. You probably measured the total sword length which isn't the nagasa.

 

[Bruce Pennington]

12 hours ago, zuiho said:

REMARKS :   An assembly number 435   stamped on mune behind hamachi.

Double press studs present  on saya. Two screws placed one on each side hold eleven inch tsuka.

Tsuka has wine-colored lacquered ito over imitation same' .  

Notes :       The other smith name of Zuiho is Shigefusa. His real name is Kojima Kameta and lived in

Tokushima prefecture. He had 5 students at his forge.

William,

Nice presentation!  And thanks for adding yours to the database of RJT blades!  Boy, they really struck that star lightly sometimes!  Had to zoom in to see it.  It was also an opportunity for me to fix my files.  I had the wrong Shigefusa listed in my RJT chart!  And I didn't have the connection that he had also signed as Zuiho.  Now I do!

 

As for "shingunto", it is my understanding that all WWII army swords were shingunto.  The word literally means "shin" - new, "gun" - army, "to"- sword; or "new army sword."  "Kyugunto" is "old army sword" referring to the Western-styled sabres.   Now, oddly, "kaigunto" literally means "Navy army sword" but that is just how the grammar workout out.  "gunto" became the vernacular for "military sword". 

 

The 'type 3' was in truth a variant of the Type 98 and had no official 'type' designator.  It is a label created by collectors, most visibly our beloved Ohmura-san who used the term on his site, but is more accurately called the Contingency model of the Type 98, or Rinji-seishiki in Japanese.  I use "RS" for an abbreviation or simply 'Rinji' (although Nick pointed out that 'Rinji' by itself means something derogatory in slang! Ha!).  You can read all about this on Nick Komiya's articles here:

 

Deflating the Myth of the Type 3 sword

 

and

 

Unveiling the Rinjiseishiki Sword 1940