Shin-gunto by Nagamura Kiyonobu.

[Nazar]

So here is my latest purchase. Long story short. In the second half of October Zoheito  (or at least the sword that I identified as zoheito)  popped up at the local internet auction. I turned out to be the highest bidder yet my bid didn't reach the reserve price. It was not the first gunto put on sale by that seller. And as the seller had couple of shin-gunto on other internet platform which shows actual contact of the seller, I decided it's time to call him. We had some conversation and agreed to meet when I could make it to Kyiv. Later on we talked once more and he said that he has four gunto for sale. Basically, I knew what three of them were. The zoheito from auction and two shin-gunto he had on another platform.  Yet, the war kept me away from Kyiv for a longer time than initially was planned, so when I made it there and met the seller in person, only three swords remained. 

 

The interesting thing about the swords in question is that I found all of them (except zoheito) to be present here, on this very board. Yet, again, at the moment of our meeting I knew about two out of three. The seller was quite surprised by this knowledge of mine and told me that it's his partner who is a member of this forum. 

 

This showato with Seki stamp has already gone by the time we met:  https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/49753-shin-gunto-with-signature/

 

 

Zoheito  turned out to be an assembly of parts from different swords.  In photos from the auction it just looked like avarage zoheito, not the best but not the worst either. Yet, holding it in hands, taking some close looks and removing tsuka revealed the truth. Tsuka core was badly hewn to fit fuchi and some remnant of seppa (grinded and filed) was put between fuchi and tsuka. Fuchi had some scratches on it too. The state of nakago was horrible. It was heavily rusted and I believe what I've seen in one place might have been a mix of rust and glue to make tsuka fit without freeplay. The blade was heavily buffed (and likely sandpapered before that). So that was no go for sure. 

 

The third sword (and second known to me at that moment) was this shin-gunto:  https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/46565-shin-gunto/ 

 

It might be a pretty decent showato if not for tsuka. It might have been rewrapped at some stage as Ito looked too new and clean. Yet the main no-go were fuchi and kabuto-gane. Even in pictures from the topic one may notice that they look too blurry, especially kabuto-gane. With sword in hands they looked like someone made the molds from original parts and re-cast them. It was a strange contrast with the brass fittings on saya that looked pretty normal. Now if one took into account these details and the fact that there are two mekugi ana in nakago, one may come to the conclusion that the tsuka is not original and was a later addition to this sword. Considering this, I decided to pass on this sword too.

 

Yet, I made quite a long way to get to Kyiv and I didn't wish to return without a sword. Also, the fourth sword caught my eye. The blade was buffed overall (in some places it was buffed so havilly that even the line of hamon was lost).  However, something about the sword proportions (especially compared to the other two swords) and the certain things I was able to catch in even buffed hamon made me buy this sword.  Its saya had clearly nothing to do with the sword, however the tsuka, tsuba and seppa seemed to belong to the sword. I even performed the test the Jean here taught me: I disassembled the sword, put tsuka back on nakago without inserting mekugi ana and yes, it holded blade perfectly. The sarute was installed incorrectly, tsuka seemed to be rewrapped (but Ito was stained, so it seems to happen quite a long time ago).  And sure, I found a topic on this sword here too:  https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/49821-shin-gunto-with-signature/

 

I recommend taking a look at it before looking at pictures of how the sword looked when I bought it.  Mind, it was me who removed the sarute. I decided to remove it and put it in the correct way later. So here are photos:

 

 

 

 

[Nazar]

You may notice the spots where the blade was "overbuffed". These spots correspond to the spot of rust visible in photos from the original topic. 

 

The greatest  loss is the original saya. I asked the seller about it. He told me he knew nothing about its whereabouts. So  I contacted his partner, Den through the private messages here. Alas, no answer so far. Hope he will answer soon. The saya that came with the sword, well, dunno what to say... I believe it has nothing to do with the Japanese swords at all. The grey stuff seems to be automotive putty. The kurigata is crude and was held in place by sheer power of super glue.

 

 

I was visiting my parents at the time of taking sword photos, so there were some cats around doing cat things.

 

 

 

Additional photos of sword: 

 

 

Edited Thursday at 06:06 PM by Nazar

[Nazar]

Some photos of bare blade:

 

 

 

Kissaki. Yokote is visible. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nazar]

And here is nakago.

 

 

 

And the signature of Kiyonobu ( 清宣). 

 

 

[Nazar]

Later on I'll return to the signature, as it is of  interest to me. Yet, for a time being let me proceed to the most interesting part. As I said, I caught something in the hamon when I was looking at the blade for the first time. I believe I have seen hataraki.

The blade was out of polish and had some spots of rust and fingerprints that became permanent. This is clearly visible in the photos of the previous  topic on this sword. Then the blade was buffed. I also found  some scratches made across the blade. They indicate that some abrasive media like sandpaper or Scotch Brite was applied before buffing.  The buffing made the process of shooting photos of hataraki mostly impossible. Also, unevenly buffed blade with extra shiny spots took on my nerves.  So I had to do something but not to make things worse. I went through a lot of topics here and stumbled upon the mention of Jim Kurrasch's power uchiko method. I read all that I could find about it and I decided to try. It was a slow process, yet at that time I was able to spare an hour a day to do the uchiko job. After a long time I started to see the result. The hamon line that was broken by buffing  was back. I believe I still am not even halfway through the process and still have a lot to learn about uchikoing. Yet for the time being I stopped uchikoing the blade. Partly because the minimum result was already achieved and partly because I wouldn't  have time for it for some time due to my duties. In this case I had to leave my swords and blades for some time. And it will still be some weeks before I could return to them or bring them with me to a new place. 

 

So I decided to take the first photos of what I think are hataraki while I still had some time.  So far I was able to count four places (four on each side of the blade) where hataraki manifests itself. Three of these places are quite prominent (at least in my opinion). I made several approaches to photoshooting. Instead of laying the blade flat on black canvas, I put it on my 3D printed stand. I used a LED spotlight that has an integrated tripod as a source of light.  In this way I was able to change the position of the light, blade and camera. The spotlight was the only source of light in the room. Thus, the background remained black.  I also used my homemade "Macro" adapter, even as it tends to bring some light artefacts if the setup is not adjusted carefully. Yet, even with this it was hard to make propper shots of hataraki. I believe it is sunagashi. What do you think about it? Is this indeed sunagashi, or am I just a delusional moron? Also sorry for so many photos. Yet it was an interesting exercise for me to shoot them. 

 

Two photos od the same spot:

 

 

 

Two photos of yet one area:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nazar]

Three photos of yet one place:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nazar]

Three photos of next spot:

 

 

 

Edited Thursday at 06:17 PM by Nazar

[Nazar]

And two photos of yet one occurance:

 

 

 

 

[Nazar]

In some photos above you may still see the marks across the blade left by the person who "prepared" the blade for buffing. The only direction I was working uchiko is along the blade. 

 

The line of hamon doesn't overlap ha-machi. 

 

 

 

And it was especially hard to catch the boshi. 

 

 

And just a photo of the hamon line.

 

[Nazar]

Looked into my topic. Maybe I had to make those pictures smaller. If there is an issue with their viewing, here is a link for a gallery with photos of hataraki. 

 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1oh1cOIfN5e9bU13dCxD16D6G_ygK-pXX

[Nazar]

It's very hard to learn things only from pictures, without real traditionally forged blades at hand. One starts to doubt and double check everything. It was very important to me to get confirmation that what I see is what I think it is. Therefore, I reached Jean ROKUJURO here with a question and he kindly responded. Thanks to him once more for his answer! He confirmed that these are indeed sunagashi.

 

I was very glad to receive that answer. For one thing, it makes me happy that I not only learned something but also was able to apply this small knowledge in practice. For another, it does mean that this sword is likely gendaito. And because it's my first gendaito and I found this out on my own it makes this sword kind of a treasure for me, even as for many of you guys it's just another war time blade made by a not very renowned smith. Also, as Jean noticed in his message, the general condition of the blade is an issue. Still I am very glad that this sword is in my hands now. 

 

Buffing caused a lot of damage. Yet, I suspect that long before the buffing blade was polished and the polisher didn't do his best. The main indications of this are as follows: the line of Koshinogi is more straight on the mei side of the blade while it's more curvy on another. There is also a spot on the blade close to ha-machi (on the mei side ) that looks strange. In my inexperienced opinion it looks like the polisher didn't get the real line of hamon and  tried to create a false hamon line. These occurrences couldn't be explained by buffing only. Later on I'll shoot some photos of these areas. At the moment I am away from my swords and will be away for some weeks. 

 

 

Alas in cases of even gendai blades made by not very renown smiths like Nagamura Kiyonobu the polishing might be unwise. Also finding a polisher here in Ukraine might be an issue. So for the time being I will go only as far as Uchiko could get me. And even with it I'll be very cautious.  

[Bruce Pennington]

Thank you for your discussion, Nazar. It’s nice to see you enjoying and growing in your hobby.

[Nazar]

Thank you for your kind words, Bruce! It is indeed a great hobby and I enjoy every aspect of it, from uchikoing to searching for information. I am still working on the signature of Kiyonobu. As you well know, there are some variations of it. You have some in your files. So far I managed to collect around 20 Kiyonobu signatures. Some with Seki, some with  Tan stamps. My greatest interest is in signatures made by the same hand that signed my sword. So far, I believe, I have 4 such cases (including my sword) and one interesting "anomaly". Yet I have to finish my research before I post information. 

[Bruce Pennington]

Nazar,

Looks like you have more of them than I do.  I only have 7 with Seki stamp, and 6 with Tan.  All 13 have the full mei, though, compared to yours with 2 kanji.  

 

I don't see him in Sesko's list, so Slough is my only source for listing him as Nagamura Kiyonobu from Gifu.  Maybe @mecox has a write-up about him in one of his articles?

[Nazar]

Most of the cases I gathered have no additional stamps at all. Only signatures, some long, some short.  For the starter I used a couple of search engines to find as many photos of Kiyonobu swords (with nakago clearly visible) as possible. These mostly came from different auctions. I still have to analyze that information and sort pictures, because there will be some duplicates for sure.  So far I only selected the signatures that are likely made by the same hand as a signature on the nakago of my sword. The most easily spotted feature of this signature is V-shaped stokes in the  清 "Kiyo" Kanji. Most Kiyonobu signatures do not feature these strokes. Including a well known example of a long signature (with a Tan stamp) in John Slough book. 

 

Here are some closer photos of Kanji:

 

 

 

 

[Nazar]

And it won't come as a surprise that the very valuable information I found here on MNB, in this thread:

 

https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/4851-man-made-or-machine-made-shin-gunto/

 

 

1. The thread contains certain photos from the book on Japanese Swordsmith by Richard Fuller and Ron Gregory. One of the photos features Kiyonobu signature in which Kiyo Kanji has a V-shaped part. If someone has a book that contains this picture, it would be great to get a picture of the whole page.  Here is the picture from that topic. I slightly improved it.

 

@Scogg , I believe  you have all three books of Fuller and Gregory on Japanese smiths.  Could you help me with that picture, please?

 

 

2. The subject of the topic is the sword by Kiyonobu with short signature.The signature features V-shaped strokes in Kiyo Kanji and may be made by the same person who signed my sword. 

 

 

3. The nakago of the subject sword has a curious stamp that is placed on the mei side above the mekugi ana. Here are two pictures from the topic above. Alas, the quality of pictures are low so only the general shape of that stamp is recognizable.

 

 

 

Edited yesterday at 02:52 PM by Nazar
fixed links

[Nazar]

The thing about that stamp is that I believe the nakago of my sword has the very same stamp too. One may find it in the photos of nakago above.  Out of all cases of Kiyonobu swords I gathered, there are only two nakago that feature this stamp. Both have short two-Kanji signatures with V-shaped strokes in Kiyo. My only guess is that this stamp is some kind of  personal mark. 

 

As for how they were made. I guess that it's three punches in a row with the fourth punch slightly aside.  In the case of the nakago of my sword, it seems that one of three main punches may have chipped a bit of metal.  Yet, I might be wrong. Here are some close photos of the stamp.

 

 

 

 

Edited yesterday at 10:46 AM by Nazar

[Scogg]

5 hours ago, Nazar said:

 

@Scogg , I believe  you have all three books of Fuller and Gregory on Japanese smiths.  Could you help me with that picture, please?

 

@Nazar, I’m always amazed when people remember what books I’ve got in my reference library 

 

Yes, I’ve got what you’re looking for. I only found Kiyonobu in one of the three, and it’s the same one from that old thread. I’ll include all the pages relevant to Kiyonobu below.

Something that immediately grabs my attention, is the abrupt change in nakago-jiri on the arsenal setting example.
 

I hope this helps, 

Best regards,

-Sam 

 

 

[Bruce Pennington]

5 hours ago, Nazar said:

The thing about that stamp is that I believe the nakago of my sword has the very same stamp too. One may find it in the photos of nakago above.  Out of all cases of Kiyonobu swords I gathered, there are only two nakago that feature this stamp. Both have short two-Kanji signatures with V-shaped strokes in Kiyo. My only guess is that this stamp is some kind of  personal mark. 

Hm.  I had seen the mark earlier and assumed it was simply a flaw in the steel.  But after seeing another one of his with a mark in the same place, I tend to agree with you.  There are many blades with punched dots, but up to now, they are always (there's that word!) near the jiri or on the mune.  This does seem a unique personal practice of some sort.

[Nazar]

Thank you, Sam!

 

Well, it's simple :-). If one put "Fuller Gregory swordsmiths" search request into the google search bar, one soon will stumble upon this link: https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/50276-fuller-gregory-set-of-5-books/

 

It's great information. Yet it's strange that there is no short signature with V-strokes on the page that mentioned Kiyonobu. Either Greg from that topic on Kiyonobu sword had different editions of Fuller and Gregory books, or this signature featured somewhere but without an inscription in English (if it's possible?). If you could find some time to spare, could you please look through the books and try to find the signature that I frame in red in the picture? 

 

[Nazar]

Yea Bruce, I went through your work on the stamps on Japanese swords and have seen information on punches. On the nakago of my sword this stamp was partly covered by some black dirt or substance. So indeed,  at first glance it looked like some flaw. It was a double discovery: to clean it with a toothpick and realise it's not a flaw but some kind of mark and then find it's not a single case.  Also, I may be wrong about it being made by a series of punches. That as well may be the personal stamp of the person that worked on this sword. Yet it doesn't present on other Kiyonobu swords except for these two. Without additional information it will remain a curious mystery. 

Edited 21 hours ago by Nazar

[mecox]

The mei being considered is 清宜 “Kiyonobu”, which can also be read as “Kiyonori”.  There is also “nobu” and “nori” as 宣.  　

Reported information on WW2 Kiyonobu:  his real name was Nagamura Matsuichi (長村 松市) and he was born Meiji 34 (1901) April 10.  (Sometimes referred to as “Osamura”).  He was from Gifu Prefecture and registered as a Seki smith on Showa 16 (1941) April 30 (just turned 40) and was living in Kamo-gun, Tahara-mura, Osugi . He is not in the 1940 list of Seki Token Kaji Association.  He is listed as a Rikugun Jumei Tosho, but he is not listed in the 1942 Bazuke of Kurihara Hikosaburo, or in the large commercial Dai Nihon Token Meikan of 1942. Nor is he in the 1941 Shinsakuto Exhibition.  (He is not listed in Sesko).  However, he was relatively productive during the war years.

Of examples found, all blades are katana-mei, most have sujikai filing, but two have taka-no-ha (#1 with small stamp; #7 with small Seki stamp of Nagoya Arsenal 1943-1945).

Other stamps: #4 small unknown stamp; #10 TAN is early war and better steel.

Several mei are cut by specialists (nakirishi-mei) indicating bigger workshop: #6, 9, 10, 12; maybe also 4 and 5.

Very little information on him, and more likely he was a blacksmith/metal worker, without formal training as swordsmith.  Maybe early worked in smaller forges/shop, then later to Nagoya Arsenal. 

Some example descriptions of located oshigata

(1)  “Kiyonobu”, small unknown stamp, katana-mei, taka-no-ha yasurime strongly filed.  “Nori” uncommon style.  [Nazar, December, 2025, NMB]

(2)   “Nagamura Kiyonobu tsukuru kore”,  katana-mei, sujikai? yasurime. [JSI, Stein]

(3)   “Kiyonobu”, tachi-mei, sujikai yasurime.  Shingunto.  [Griffin Militaria]

(4)   “Nagamura Kiyonobu”, small stamp, katana-mei, sujikai yasurime. [ikedaart]

(5)   “Nagamura Kiyonobu tsukuru”, katana-mei, sujikai yasurime. [Seiyudo]

(6)   “Noshu ju nin Nagamura Kiyonobu tsukuru kore” , NBTHK Hozon paper 2010 (Japanese seller read as “Kiyonori”).  Katana-mei, sujikai yasurime. No date, no stamp. [e-sword.jp]

(7)   “Nagamura Kiyonobu”, katana-mei, taka-no-ha yasurime, small SEKI stamp of Nagoya Arsenal (1943-1945) [dwp,Dennis, December 2021, NMB]

(8)   “Noshu ju Nagamura Kiyonobu kore saku” very poorly cut, katana-mei, taka-no-ha yasirime roughly filed.  Three punch marks (assembly marks?), later hole drilled (post-war?)

(9)   “Noshu Osugi ju Nagamura Kiyonobu saku” (living in Osugi in Mino/Gifu), well cut mei by specialist, katana-mei, sujikai yasurime. No date or stamp. [Jason Jcremer24, March, 2023, NMB]

(10) “Nagamura Kiyonobu kitau kore”, TAN stamp, katana-mei, sujikai yaskuri-mei with kessho finish. [Slough, 2001, p.85]

(11) “Nagamura  Kiyonobu” SEKI stamp, katana-mei, yasurime not clear.  Arsenal work. [Fuller & Gregory, 1983, #188]

(12) “Nagamura Kiyonobu kitau kore”, katana-mei, sujikai yasurime. Early war. [Fuller & Gregory, 1983, #192]

(13) no image: “Noshu Seki ju Kiyonobu saku”, SEKI stamp, date 1942. [Fuller & Gregory, 1983, #255]

 

    

[Nazar]

Great info, Mal! Thank you!

 

It seems that at the moment we have two cases of the small unknown stamp. Also, Kiyonobu tachi-mei does exist. Here it is:

 

https://www.kinghouse.sg/collection-details/ww2-officer-sword-forged-by-kiyonobu

 

 

At the first stage of gathering information on signatures  I went ballistic and wasn't sorting information. It still would be some time till I sort it.