Show Us Your Wacky Late War Gunto

[Lordd_Humungous]

I'll never stop being surprised by the kinds of guntos out there (until I buy that encyclopedia on them that gets recommended here). I mean, you have family heirloom katanas in some or most of their original koshirae, naginata naoshi wakizashi, tantos crammed into double hanger Kai Gunto mounts, it's all just crazy. I've been especially fascinated by late war guntos recently, since it seems like many of the factories just had to work with whatever parts or metals they had on hand, which led to all sorts of interesting hodge podge koshirae (like mixing type 3 and type 98 parts), makeshift fittings (my favorite being one that used what Ohmura calls an "oblong plate" as a menuki) and other features that aren't found on any early war swords (it really seems like for some of the late swords, they just found a local guy who had a random kabutogane and recasted it). I'm not sure if there's already a thread on this, so let me know if there is. If not, let's see those feats of resourcefulness! 

[Bruce Pennington]

I know there are 1 or 2 guys who collect things like this, but not many, so your responses may be slow in coming.  We've seen several come through over the years.  Are you are just looking for guys that own them to post?  

[Bruce Pennington]

Still would like to see this topic develop!  I don't have a definite late war gunto, but I have a kai with a Takayama style blade in fittings that could be a late war assembly.  It also could be a post-war collector attempt to put some fittings on a blade without any.  But my gut feel is that it was a late war assembly.

 

 

Let me count the ways ...

The single haikan (ashi); the leather saya cover looks fairly new, but it does have wear; and the numbers on the saya throat match the seppa numbers

 

 

 

The fuchi was made for a chuso, but not the saya, nor tsuka, so this could be post-war add-on

 

Yet, the liner doesn't really look like it was made for this blade, even though the numbers match the fittings

 

 

The sarute is elongated and metal, vs the cloth sarute often found on kaigunto

 

And finally, the mumei blade has one of those mystery paper labels, unreadable from time and wear

 

 

So, post-war piece together or late war gunto using available parts?  The sticker, the single ashi, the matching numbers, the newish leather with a bit of wear - I lean toward late-war.

[DRDave]

I too, have an interest in late WWII swords.  I don't currently have any gunto, but I do have a couple of gendaito.  You can read about one of them, made in February of 1945 by Tsutsui Kiyokane, here.  The sword has the most umegane of any blade I've ever seen; and as I read through my old post, I erred when I wrote "There is some evidence in the hada suggesting the possibility of bigger issues requiring umegane.."  Don't know how I missed that the first time round, because there is nothing that even hints at the reason for the umegane.  I've always wondered if maybe the metal had some special meaning to the smith that he wanted to incorporate into the blade.

 

My other one is a blade by Shibata Ka; made in August 1945.  I don't recall seeing one any later than that, and Ka passed before sword making resumed; so I've often wondered if it was the last blade he ever made.

 

Edit:  Just FYI, There are at least two swords from 1945 on Ray Singer's website; a Takenori and a Akitaka