Type 32 stamping

[Ashley Le Boydre]

G'Day All,

 

I am hoping someone out ther can point me in the right direction. I recently purchased two Type 32's with a number of swords and Bayonets.

I am trying to ID all the stamps. I get the Tokyo Arsenal stamp.

The first picture is a Kō-guntō, the top two symbols I can not identify.

The Second picture is a Otsu-guntō, the bottom two symbols I can not identify.

The third photo is the stamp on the drag and Ricasso.

 

Can anyone please help.

 

Best regards

 

Ashley

[Bruce Pennington]

@Kiipu

 

Brian, might want to move this to Military Forum.

[Conway S]

@Ashley Le Boydre

 

The markings in the top photo are the inspector’s name. You have the stamps oriented upside down. The characters, read right to left look like 岩元 or Iwamoto (surname). The earlier production swords usually are not dated. What is the serial number on these?
 

In the second picture 大二 is the date Taisho 2 or 1913. The other stamps are illegible without better pics. 
 

Maybe @Scogg or Brian can move this to the proper thread for military swords. 
 

Conway

[Scogg]

Very cool swords Ashley, and welcome to the forum. I’ve taken a recent liking to these type 32 sabers, as I picked one up myself just the other week. 
 

Photos of the serial numbers and blades could help too, as we always like to see swords! We’ll have to wait for Brian to relocate this thread because I cannot affect this section, but you’ve got the right eyes on your swords for now 

 

All the best,

-Sam 

[Kiipu]

On 6/22/2025 at 7:54 AM, Conway S said:

In the second picture 大二 is the date Taisho 2 or 1913. The other stamps are illegible without better pics.

 

The one on the left is 平.

[Ashley Le Boydre]

Thanks to everyone.

The serial number on the first one "the Ko Guntō " is 61515.

The serial number on the "Otsu Guntō is 97473 which matches on the Scabbard.

I have taken another couple of photos of the Otsu stamps, hopefully they will help ID it.

Regards

 

Ashley