Looking for info on WW2 Army/officer dirks

[John C]

Everyone:

I have a (Tanaka?) Munetsugu dirk dated 1943 and cannot find much information on these. It came in shirasaya. Munetsugu was a relatively unknown mediocre RJT smith. The first pic is my dirk and the second is a blurb from Fuller and Gregory about these. I have a few questions about these I hope someone can answer.

1. Is there any literature beyond F&G and Dawson that talks about these?

2. Would these have been made along side swords at Seki or Yasakuni, for example?

3. I assume these are special order, however did all WW2 smiths make dirks as well as swords?

Thank you for reading,

John C.

[BANGBANGSAN]

John

Check these 三笠刀 Mikasa-tō (Gun material use of a battleship "Mikasa.")
The Mikasa swords were forged 229.
 The grade Kō Mikasa dirks (It is with "the fate of a Japanese Empire is decided by this battle" sculpture were forged 973, and the grade Otsu Mikasa dirks were forged 451. And it was sold through "Suikōsha".These swords and dirks were made by one of the top 12 Shows swordsmiths 堀井俊秀 （Horii Toshihide） also known as 秀明（Hideaki）&兼明（Kaneaki）。

http://ohmura-study.net/912.html

 

[BANGBANGSAN]

Hand forged by   堀井俊秀 （Horii Toshihide）'s son  堀井胤次（Horii Tanetsugu）

 

[John C]

Mikasa-to seem to be the same basic style. Sure wish I could afford one of those - if I could find one!

Also, this style seems to be quite different than the so-called "kamikaze" style; or regular soldier style.

 

John C.

[Bruce Pennington]

John, I recall someone mentioning a dedicated dirk book, but I can't remember where or who it was mentioned.  A brief google search came up with this book on dirks based on the Banks Collection.  Don't know anything about it, though:

 

Japanese Pattern Dirks: The Banks Collection - Kenneth O. Banks - Google Books

[John C]

Thanks, Bruce. I'll take a look.

John C.