I think I have a late World War 2 Japanese Cavalry sword.

[Moderk]

 

[Bruce Pennington]

Do us a favor and show us a picture of the overall fittings. But what you have is a late war Type 95 NCO sword.

 

Sam - @Scogg - will be along soon to fully fill you in.  In the meantime, some good sites to review:

NCO Type 95 Gunto - Ohmura

and

Japanese Sword Care

[ROKUJURO]

Hi Derek,

welcome to the NMB forum!

What you have is certainly not a late World War 2 Japanese Calvary sword    

but probably  a Cavalry sword   may exist somewhere.  

[Scogg]

Hi Derek, welcome to the forum! I'm going to relocate this to the Military Swords of Japan section @Moderk

Bruce is correct, it looks like a wooden hilt Type 95 guntō. The stamp near the serial number is a SEKI stamp ( 関 ) that is either lightly struck or partially polished away. It's believed that this variation ( Variation 8 ) would have been made around June/July 1944. 

 

関 = seki = 名古屋陸軍造兵廠関監督班 , Seki Supervisory Unit of Nagoya Army Arsenal. 

These swords are often called NCO swords, but their carry was limited to senior NCO's mostly Sergeant Majors and Warrant Officers. They were also issued to mounted branches such as cavalry, transport, and military police. See Nick Komiya's write up here, specifically Comment#10 :

https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/Japanese-militaria/short-development-history-type-95-gunto-676112/

So it's possible it was Cavalry, but impossible to know for certain without some associated wartime provenance. 
They are cool swords.
All the best,
-Sam

Edited August 24 by Scogg
Spelling military ranks correctly

[Bruce Pennington]

Thanks Sam! This is a good discussion. I think we can clean up some terminology though. There were sword designs that were specifically made for cavalry. It is fair to call them cavalry swords. The type 95 was designed for senior noncommissioned officers and other enlisted ranks in some specific high-level jobs. But we do not call swords by the job the enlisted man was holding. Or else we would have maintenance swords and transportation swords, etc.

[Scogg]

Thank you for that clarification Bruce, that’s absolutely correct.
 

What I should have said was; that while it’s not a cavalry specific sword, it could have been carried by a cavalry trooper, but short of some wartime paperwork or photographs that is likely impossible to determine. 

[Moderk]

Thank you all for the clarification. I am by no means knowledgeable of these facts and to get all of you responding to my post , I truly appreciate. The\n Only information I have ever sought out about this particular item. I took it to a blade Smith and manufacturer. He was pretty cool guy in Prescott, Arizona, not a big deal, he looked at it and said that the person who carried it was right-handed  And I was , I thought that was pretty cool. Besides that, I have done no major research on it.Except for recently, when trying to figure out what it was , its been put away for a while.

[BANGBANGSAN]

In fact, according to official Japanese military documents, there was also a cavalry(騎兵） variant of the Type 95 NCO sword. Chinese cavalry units also use some the Type 95 as their cavalry sword. The cavalry variant was slightly more expensive,the main difference was presumably that the cavalry version came with a special hanger.

 

[Moderk]

[Moderk]

[Moderk]

[Moderk]

To be honest, it's a little rough.And I really don't know what to do with it, it's a nice sword. Someone before I got it mistreated a little bit , and I would like to either restore it myself or find it a home for someone that wants to restore it themselves.

[Bruce Pennington]

I have a 95 with a saya like that, where the paint had been stripped.  The metal has that same dark look.

By 'restore' do you mean re-paint?  I don't recommend it.  I did it to one of mine and it looks too new.  After that, I leave them as they are.  TLC with some gentle cleaning, uchiko, and oil is all they need.

 

Edit: corrected spelling, and replaced Choji with Uchiko

[ROKUJURO]

13 hours ago, Moderk said:

Derek,

never touch a blade with your bare fingers!

It is a general rule of care to prevent corrosion and show respect.

[john42768]

If you are seeking more info on the type 95, go to the top banner under downloads. Japanese type 95 NCO. It will give you a great overview of the various type and more specifics on yours. Best, John

[Moderk]

Thank Bruce

[eternal_newbie]

3 hours ago, ROKUJURO said:

It is a general rule of care to prevent corrosion and show respect.

 

And also to prevent you from losing a finger... or something even more important!

[Moderk]

I appreciate your guys's warnings.Just didn't have any other way to hold my phone and it.But yeah, no I know.I have lot of tools.I should do know better. I was going to restore it, but to be honest, I wouldn't know where to begin or even if I should knowing me, it would turn into a retro mod and it would be, I would replace the wooden handles the wooden grips with my carda and probably a brass end cap with a spike, you know, because that's what my ADHD kind of demands me, and I don't really want to do that to this.  So thinking about selling it, we're on here.Would I go?

Edited 11 hours ago by Moderk

[Bruce Pennington]

NMB's For Sale - Swords and Edged Weapons page.