Metal Saya Nihonto Identification

[Patinamax]

Hey all, it's that time again! I have a sword here a client has asked me to identify/valuate - and it is interesting. Any information will help - smith name, date, etc. I don't have any details or provenance, but he has a lot of vintage swords, vintage US military gear, etc, so possibly a relative who collected artifacts from WWII. Appreciate the help in advance, and please feel free to ask me for more pictures, and I will get around to them when I am able. I will post the additional pictures in replies as they are a little too big to upload all to the main post. 

[Patinamax]

pics 2

[Patinamax]

pics 3

[Patinamax]

pic 4

[Patinamax]

pics 5

[Patinamax]

pics 6 

[Patinamax]

Total length (sheathed and with all parts attached) is approximately 39 1/4" or 99.6 cm

[Conway S]

Hi Lance, 

 

It looks to be signed Yoshitada and dated June 1945. It’s in Type 3 Army fittings and is not traditionally made. The black painted numbers are subassembly numbers and may match the fittings (八七四=874) or the first character could be hiragana. There is also the Gifu inspector’s stamp on the nakago. 

[Scogg]

Hi @Patinamax, cool sword, and thanks for sharing

 

I’m going to relocate this to the military sword section because it fits that section better, and I think you’ll get more input over there

 

All the best,

-Sam 

[Patinamax]

15 hours ago, Scogg said:

Hi @Patinamax, cool sword, and thanks for sharing

 

I’m going to relocate this to the military sword section because it fits that section better, and I think you’ll get more input over there

 

All the best,

-Sam 

Thanks Sam, I was unsure and did not want to assume (knew metal fittings meant likely military)

[Patinamax]

18 hours ago, Conway S said:

Hi Lance, 

 

It looks to be signed Yoshitada and dated June 1945. It’s in Type 3 Army fittings and is not traditionally made. The black painted numbers are subassembly numbers and may match the fittings (八七四=874) or the first character could be hiragana. There is also the Gifu inspector’s stamp on the nakago. 

Hey there, thank you for the information. I had an extremely short period of time to list this as my store has been extremely busy, so apologies for the errors. 

[Scogg]

No harm no foul. I move around posts quite a bit, and it’s really no problem at all. I just want to make sure we get the right eyes on your sword 

 

Your stamp appears to be the Sakura flower with Gi inside. You can read a little about it in Bruce’s stamps document in the download section.

 

I have a tsuba with this same stamp, of which can be seen on my post in the link below:

https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/5999-arsenal-stamps/page/51/#comments

Are there any stamps on your tsuba? 

All the best,

-Sam

 

Edited February 20 by Scogg
Correction

[Patinamax]

On 2/19/2026 at 3:25 PM, Scogg said:

No harm no foul. I move around posts quite a bit, and it’s really no problem at all. I just want to make sure we get the right eyes on your sword 

 

Your stamp appears to be the Sakura flower with Gi inside. You can read a little about it in Bruce’s stamps document in the download section.

 

I have a tsuba with this same stamp, of which can be seen on my post in the link below:

https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/5999-arsenal-stamps/page/51/#comments

Are there any stamps on your tsuba? 

All the best,

-Sam

 

Hey Sam, I will take a look when I get some time to pull it apart, the store gets very busy very quickly!