Kai Gunto single hanger

[IJASWORDS]

I have seen a number of Kai Gunto, (in person and in photos ) with only one ashi, and no signs of any second hanger ever being present . 

Is this common ? Was it an option ? 

Photo of one I own , in all other respects original and high quality . 

[IJASWORDS]

Trawling the net, just found another single hanger Kai in a 2015 NMB post . 

[PNSSHOGUN]

There was one on ebay with a wakizashi mounted, looked late war made. If memory serves me right I recall reading that near the end of the war they stopped adding the second haikan. If it has obvious signs of later war make it wouldn't be a big leap to say it was an original single haikan example? Harder to say because the quality of Kai Gunto didn't drop off as radically as the Shin Gunto.

[Bruce Pennington]

Neil,

Richard Fuller found the same phenomena, and speculated that they were prefered by Naval land forces workng with the army. He has another variation where a navy gunto is mounted in leather combat cover, 1 haikan, and even has white same'.

 

[IJASWORDS]

Bruce , as always you can put your finger on the right information ! May explain why mine also has a push button release like the Army variety rather than a Navy lanyard to secure the blade. 

[Dave R]

  On 8/7/2019 at 12:00 PM, Bruce Pennington said:

Neil,

Richard Fuller found the same phenomena, and speculated that they were prefered by Naval land forces workng with the army. He has another variation where a navy gunto is mounted in leather combat cover, 1 haikan, and even has white same'.

 

IMG_2557.jpg

 

 I had similar thoughts myself, but without a reference was wary of posting. All to many variant swords get labelled as NLF, but in this case I think you are right on the button.

[drb 1643]

Hi All , I posted pictures of mine in the translation section on 6-8-18. If the moderators can move the pictures to this thread that would be great!

Tom

[IJASWORDS]

Hi Tom, went back about 19 pages and found it . I remember back then it was a "stunner "! It would be great to see it re-posted here . On a side issue , I compared your blade to my Kotani Yasunori, and very similar in construction . However the cutting of the mei , and the hand that did it look different . Especially comparing the cutting of the date . Just an observation , and only my amateurish attempt at comparison .  

[robinalexander]

Hi Neil,

 

It appears at least one large UK dealer shares the same general view as Fuller.

 

A current Kai-Gunto for sale advert states " You can tell this is a genuine WW2 Japanese Naval Landing Forces Officers Kai-Gunto because it only has a single ashi (suspension loop) plus has a leather combat cover."

 

Of course its unknown whether in this case, Fuller's view has simply been adopted or the dealers opinion is based on his own knowledge/experience.

 

FYI.

 

Rob McL

[Dave R]

  On 8/11/2019 at 8:58 AM, robinalexander said:

Hi Neil,

 

It appears at least one large UK dealer shares the same general view as Fuller.

 

A current Kai-Gunto for sale advert states " You can tell this is a genuine WW2 Japanese Naval Landing Forces Officers Kai-Gunto because it only has a single ashi (suspension loop) plus has a leather combat cover."

 

Of course its unknown whether in this case, Fuller's view has simply been adopted or the dealers opinion is based on his own knowledge/experience.

 

FYI.

 

Rob McL

 

 For me the leather combat cover would be the clincher, a sure sign of a sword intended to be taken regularly into combat. Sometimes they seem to have taken whatever was to hand, and would do the job.

[PNSSHOGUN]

If it's one of the shrink fit leather covers it's original without question, same with two hanger Type 94's.

[JoeR1986]

I recently came in to possession of one of these swords and if anyone can give me information on it from the photos it would be truly appreciated.

[mecox]

Joe, sword is a Naval kaigunto with stainless steel blade made at Tenshozan Tanrenjo.  It has the stamp of anchor in circle and reads "Taketaka saku"  (made by Taketaka).  These were made on production line. Of interest this name is not common...there are a series of others:  Takeyoshi, Takeyuki and Takeyasu.

On NMB Downloads lots of info on these swords:

 

[Bruce Pennington]

Joe,

Your kaigunto appears to be an example of the late-war swords that were made under new rules, reducing the specs, due to shortages.  Here is a post from another thread - 

Recently discovered by NIck Komiya at Warrelics:

 

"I don't know how relevant it is to the discussions here, but the navy also issued a "Last Ditch" Rinji spec directive for officer swords on 27th March 1945. Directive Number 54 said "1: Gilding, Gold Colored Metal and Cherry branch engravings are to cease, 2:Sarute not to be attached, 3:Only one Haikan (scabbard ring) to be present, 4: Use of animal skins to be minimized, 5: Push button type locks to be changed to tie-cord type, 6: Scabbards to be wrapped in tree bark and be finished with black lacquer.

By that time, the navy had lost its ships and most members got deployed as land troops, so it is understandable if the above Rinji spec got to be associated with the NFL.

The PX sword discussed here seems to consist mainly of parts matching the description above, but with some gold colored parts thrown in to beautify them.

I asked for clarification on the fuchi design, and he said:

 

"In Japanese, point 1 is 「金鍍金、金色金属、枝桜毛彫及彫刻ヲ用ヒザルコト」, which says no gold color nor engraved or relief adornment, so a "plain Jane".　This directive is mentioned in the Ohmura site as well as Wikipedia, so it should be common knowledge to Gunto collectors already."

 

So this explains the odd-ball navy gunto with one haikan (ashi).  I'm not talking about the souvenir sold with mixed army/navy fittings, but actual navy gunto.  If memory serves, I saw one in combat saya with single haikan.  If anyone has an example, I'd love to get it posted here."

 

There are other examples on this thread: