From Guam in 1944

[KKC]

This is my uncle's sword taken from somewhere on Guam in 1944.  My research is at the point of translating the sword's symbols and engravings, in an attempt to match them with information from the Japanese order of battle in 1944, with a hope of determining the sword's past military unit.  All stamped parts are the number "25", to include the very top of the wood insert.  Please accept my apologies if the parts are incorrectly named or spelled.  Is there significance to the number 25...perhaps a year of origin?  Picture 8 is different and seems to be marked with Roman numbers or letters.  Could this possible indicate a unit designation?  I have attempted to translate the mei but my hand drawn notes are in pdf format that I need to convert to photos and attach.  Information from your site appears to show other swords with similar characters...the first character as 'No', second possibly 'Ne something', then maybe a partial name in the middle 'In(oue?)' and the last character as 'Saku'.  I thank you ahead of time for any assistance. Kevin

Mei top section with arsenal stamp.pdf

[SteveM]

濃州住藤井兼音謹作 　Nōshū-jū Fujii Kaneoto kinsaku  

 

FUJII Kaneoto of Nōshū province diligently made this

 

It's a set phrase used for inscriptions on some WW2 swords. Nōshū province is Gifu Prefecture. This blade has the Seki stamp - Seki is a town in Gifu Prefecture, known for making swords and other bladed tools. The numbers on the wooden piece are "5.25" and are just assembly numbers. They will not help you figure out the division the owner was in. The writing is in calligraphic style, so it will look quite different to the normal fonts. 

Kaneoto is a known smith, and you can probably find other examples on this site. 

[mecox]

KANEOTO (兼音), real name Fujii Otoji (藤井音二), born Taisho 10 (1921) October 8, from Seki.  He registered as a Seki swordsmith on Showa 17 (1942) April 9 (age around 20)  living at Nagasumi-cho.  In a 1942 ranking of 400 smiths was  Ryōkō no Retsu (7th level of 7), and worked as a Rikugun Jumei Tōshō (maybe from 1943).  He trained under well known smith Kojima Kanemichi (who had over 15 students in early war) but as young he looks to have had limited production. 

[SteveM]

@Kiipu suggests that the first kanji on the scabbard liner looks more like 共 than 5 (which I agree) so 共25.

共 just means "together" , so its telling the assemblers to put it together with parts numbered #25. 

[Bruce Pennington]

And the hash marks in photo 8 are " II X /" which are modified Roman numberals - 2 10 5 or 25.

 

The large Stamp puts your blade in the 1940-45 range with the most likely date of 1942.

 

The only thing that could have given you the personal data you were hoping for is when these come home with surrender tags attached.

[mecox]

Folks, not sure of the relevance, but some odd things:  nakago has 2 mekugi ana, tsuba has 2 holes for clip and looks like one seppa (3 up) has "35" not "25".   Maybe these are original ??

Also:   in the last pic of the fuchi with the "Roman numerals" is that a strip of copper inside it ? for fitting? plus in pic 1 of the underside of fuchi both nakago hole and clip hole have been altered (enlarged).

Edited March 6, 2023 by mecox
update

[Kiipu]

7 hours ago, SteveM said:

This blade has the Seki stamp - Seki is a town in Gifu Prefecture,

 

Hi Kevin, welcome to the forum.  The Seki stamp alluded to above looks like this 関.

[KKC]

I really appreciate the insights and comments.  The wealth of knowledge on this site in truly impressive.  Thank you very much.

[KKC]

The letters/numbers etched into the fuchi are a bright brass color while the surface has a red tint in places, but is it a single solid piece of brass.  The camera angle and lighting make the tinted area to appear as a second metal piece.  I hadn't seen that before.  The clip hole is so thin at one point, if you zoom in, you'll see the crack/break point. Some type of modification or repair was done.  The estimate of being made in 1942 is helpful.  The larger Japanese army units on Guam in 1944, deployed to the island from China.  I'm not sure it they went back to the homeland, but I will now look into units that formed and deployed in the 1942/43 time frame.  Again, thank you for the observations.