Help to identify type 19 Japanese Ceremonial Sword.

[2tea22]

Can somebody help me identifying this sword? From what I could gather, it is a type 19 Japanese Imperial Sword. I read that the police variants have a 5 petal cherry blossom on the handle's ears while the military ones have a 10 petal cherry blossom. I looked at photos of both variants I could find online and could not see the difference for the life of me. I inclined to think that "my" sword is the police version but I am not certain for sure. Can you help?

 

Edited Friday at 04:15 PM by 2tea22
correction

[Conway]

Hi Mike, 

 

You have an Army Type 19. The 5 vs. 10 petal distinction refers to the Sakura on the handle backstrap and guard. 

The motif on the guard is also different if you look closely. The Army guard has two flower blossoms in the top section and one in the bottom. This is reversed on police swords. The pommel also has the flower motif on Army swords, whereas the Police swords have the office/rank insignia. 
 

[2tea22]

Thank you very much Conway for such a detailed answer! 

[moriarty]

Greetings Mike,

 

I believe Conway has already laid most of the information in the table. So I'll just add some reference for a police sword, in case you hunt for one in the future! Note the push-release button present on the lower side of the guard.

Edited Friday at 08:20 PM by moriarty
Correction.

[Bruce Pennington]

Plus, and I'm sure there will be an exception found, the police sabers have one of several sun-ray patterns on the top end of the backstrap, as in the picture above.