Painted numbers (?) on gunto nakago

[Yukihiro]

This is in no way nihonto-related but, as a matter of fact, I feel I have reached an impasse as to the interpretation of what I think should be a painted number on the nakago of my gunto. Its fittings all bear the number 10 together with a Japanese character (ス= su?), so maybe the yellow painted characters are somehow related to them?

At any rate, the yellow characters were deemed "unreadable/illegible" by other Japanese sword experts...

 

 

There are many possible interpretations, among them maybe "formal" 10: 拾

 

[Yukihiro]

Actually, all I would need to know is whether the yellow painted numbers/characters could possibly be read as ス拾 , that is "su" + "formal 10".  That way I would know for sure that the blade and the koshirae have been together since 1941

 

Regards,

 

Didier

[Kiipu]

The only thing I see is yellow paint.  Not much more I can do with this one.

[Yukihiro]

Thank you all the same for your reply, Thomas. I shall try to figure out by myself what the numbers or characters can be, then

[Bruce Pennington]

Now that I see the "SU" on your seppa & tsuba, I could easily see a sloppy Su 10 in that paint.  It's missing the back "leg" of the Su, but like I say, it's sloppy

 

 

[Yukihiro]

Thank you very much indeed, Bruce!

 

I am nonetheless very surprised that there should be a 10 in Arabic numerals on the nakago, as, most of the time, they seem to be in kanji.

[uwe]

Unfortunately, pure guesswork here!
Bruce tried something, but the fact that non of our wizards jumped in might mean something…

[Bruce Pennington]

10 hours ago, Yukihiro said:

Thank you very much indeed, Bruce!

 

I am nonetheless very surprised that there should be a 10 in Arabic numerals on the nakago, as, most of the time, they seem to be in kanji.

Remember the adage: "never say never, nor always with WWII gunto!"

[Yukihiro]

As improbable as it may sound to some of you on here, @Bruce Pennington's theory might be the right one, as I have found two other such instances of gunto assembly numbers painted in Arabic numerals:

 

 

The difference, though, is that the Arabic numerals were painted horizontally and not vertically, but the presence of the Japanese ス might explain that.

 

Now I think somebody should move this post to a more adequate section...