WW2 Arsenal made Tachi? Info please.....

[Stopper37]

I picked up a Showato recently, it came with a tachi saya and no handle (came with a handle meant for another sword with much bigger nakago). I am almost sure the saya was made for the blade as it fits really well, the same goes for the tusba ana and dai seppa. the tachi fitting are very plain brass ones but fairly well made.

 

 

The sori is very deep and the sugata has a koto feel to it (well except at 26 in, it is quite a bit shorter). I have not seen a Showa blade with that much curve on before, but then I am no expert so maybe there are. The sugata is what convinced me that was not really meant to go to war with.

 

 

The tang is very short, although well made and follows the curve of the blade. it is signed Seki KaneMoto and comes with a Sho stamp, so it can't be traditionally made.

 

 

and the hamon looks like this:

 

 

I have read there were tachi style swords made in WW2, but they were all presentation sword and/or marshal sword, which were of excellent quality. From the info I could find on the net, there were two WW2 Kanetomo listed, a Chu saku listed 三輪 兼友 Miwa Kanetomo and a Jo Saku listed 桐淵 兼友 Kiribuchi Kanetomo, my blade wasn't made by some uber uber Saijo listed smith.

 

 

My question is, did the Arsenals actually make tachi (not, the kai-gunto type or shinggunto with two hangers but traditional style tachi)? If so, what for? Or maybe I am wrong and it is just a gunto blade "pimped up" with tachi fittings.....

[Clive Sinclaire]

I believe that cheap tachi kshirae were made to celebrate a new Imperial succession such as Taisho in 1911 and Showa in 1926. Rarely, if ever were they made at arsenals

Clive Sinclaire

[cabowen]

As Clive has mentioned, there were tachi koshirae made for the coronations in the early 20th century. Many were actually quite well made however....

 

Keep in mind that there was alway a demand for cheap tachi koshirae for any number of uses- export, display, kabuki, to match an armor, for yabusame, etc. In the early Showa period, the nationalistic spirit that swept the country created a demand for such things. There was no prohibition against ownership and the good folks in Seki, primarily, produced many such koshirae, filling them with showa-to, which were cheap; the zinc/aluminum blade used these days for "toy" swords was yet to be created and not a legal necessity.

[Stopper37]

thank you gents for the info, for a moment I thought I got myself a super rare blade.n

 

Oh well, I still like the feel of the blade and it surely will make a fun holiday project making a new tuska and fixing the saya.