Ian B3HR2UH

Captain Tsuneki's sword is illustrated on page 56 of Fuller and Gregory's Military Swords of Japan . The caption indicates that it was in the collection of the late Ron Gregory . There are further photos of the surrender on page 107. Ian Brooks

That is a really interesting question Michael . I have a rather fine suriage Shinto blade . Whilst the blade is in great condition parts of the nakago are not . There are a few random strokes from the mei still visible amongst the rust but there isn't enough left to allow you to read it . Like you I had always wondered if the chiselling of the mei would result in any metal displacement which would mean that techniques like those you refer to could be used to determine what the mei once was . I look forward to hearing what others have to say Ian Brooks

Hi Steve , in Australia the urban myth exists which says that our soldiers in the islands used jeep springs to turn out fake Japanese swords which they then sold to gullible and wealthy GIs as the real thing . Forty years ago when I was beating the bushes and looking at swords bought home by returning veterans I saw a fair number of these jeep spring swords . I concluded that it was not only the Americans who had been conned . Fuller and Gregorys book Swordsmiths of Japan showed a couple of blades that had been made in Java during the war . This lead me to conclude that at least some of these jeep spring swords had been made by the Japanese in the Islands . I felt that maybe they were made for officers in local collaborating units or for recently promoted Japanese officers who couldn't get a sword from home as supplies were not getting through late in the war. I recently came across an October 1945 report on the foundry and engineering works at Sanga Sanga in Borneo . These works were manufacturing river craft of up to 66 tons and had the capacity to repair and maintain heavy oil machinery . The report lists items which had been manufactured there including steel helmets bayonets swords hand grenades mortar bombs and flame throwers. The manufactured items were described as being " in most cases were of inferior quality and production rate was very low " Given that your sword has almost certainly come back from Malaysia with a returning soldier I think it is highly likely that it was made in the islands by the Japanese during the war . Ian Brooks

Hi Bruce , I have real doubts that this is a Naval sword . I live in Australia and have looked at thousands of swords that were bought back from the South West Pacific theatre of war and have never seen one of this pattern . It is possible that late in the war the Japanese couldn't get reinforcements through to the south West pacific area which accounts for their absence here .PersonallyI think that they were made in Japan really late in the war or more likely after the war from left over bits and pieces . I would be interested to hear Thomas's views on this . Ian Brooks.

Hi Jason , I had a crack at you in an earlier post about not reading the mei . It is clear from your other posts though that you look at what you have carefully and intelligently. I feel sure you will be ok as a collector and even better if you work on reading the mei . I have a short mumei wak blade with a somewhat less regular sanbonsugi than yours . I kind of hope it might be early Kanemoto . I have collected a fair number of oshigata of hamon of Magoroku from Japanese publications and none of them show a regular sanbonsugi . I think that there is no chance that yours ( or mine ) are magoroku . That isn't to say that yours is not a nice collectable blade . Ian Brooks

That is a really ugly short tang on the sword . I don't think a trained swordsmith would produce anything like that. You should get it out of your thoughts that there is even a possibility that this is a hand forged piece by a recognised smith . Steve is right it is highly likely that it is a late war sword with an oil quenched blade of low quality. Ian brooks

Jason , I was in disbelief that you couldn't read this signature .. Anyone who has John Yumoto's book should be able to read this easily . If you don't have Yumoto's book then you shouldn't be collecting . If you have the book and still couldn't get this signature then you shouldn't be collecting. Sorry if being blunt offends anyone. Ian Brooks

Hi James ,the examples Jacques shows are interesting as although they are wakizashi and not tachi the yasurimei slope up on one and down on the other . Before I stuck my neck out I checked a fair number of oshigata in Japanese texts and from memory on tachi the file marks always slope up to the right as shown in the second and fourth examples that you have shown . The third example that you have shown is a wakizashi so the mei is on the katana side . You would have to check books ,as Jacques has done, to see what the rule is for wakizashi . It is clear though, as Barry pointed out, that for tachi by Mutsu no kami the yasurimei should rise slightly to the right. Ian Brooks

Hi James , you asked for further comment so here goes .Barry is right that the file marks should slant up to the right and not down . Not only is this wrong but the characters themselves don't match up well . Hizen mei are beautifully cut and to my mind the mei on your piece isn't. I also doubt that you would get kizu like those on a mainline piece . With due respect to Roger I think the piece is almost certainly gimei . That is not to say that the sword is not worth having ,( indeed it looks far more desirable than most that are put up for discussion ) , just that it is not by the third generation Ian Brooks

I agree with you Brian it looks odd . Ian brooks

The late Ron Gregory, who wrote the books on Military Swords, had a daisho with similar snake horimono on the blades .Interestingly the mountings also featured snakes entwined around the tsuka and saya. One blade was signed Awataguchi Tadatsuna dated 1652 and the other Kaneiye dated 1574 so the horimono were almost certainly later additions, The swords were illustrated in the sale catalogue of part of his collection and the Dai was also shown in the1968 Token Society catalogue . Ian Brooks

It must be a quirk in my personality that causes me to look at scratchings on seppa and writings underneath fuchi on shin gunto and Kai gunto. Whilst I have seen one sword where the swordsmiths name was scratched on all of the seppa as well as on the tsuba, the impression that I get is that these scratchings on seppa whilst often numbers are occasionally the owners name rendered in (usually ) katakana .Unfortunately it is hard to prove this as the sword usually has no surrender tag with it that gives the owners name so that this can be compared with the name in the scrathings. Similarly a number of swords have characters written in ink on the wood under the fuchi . Whilst these are often numbers, names also occasionally appear. Whilst it is possible that these are the names of the hilt binder or the person who put the sword together my suspicion is that these are also sometimes the owners name. Some years ago I saw a kai gunto with an accompanying surrender tag that gave the owners name as Captain Ikeda. The name Ikeda was also scratched on the tsuba and was written in ink on the wood underneath the fuchi. I thought that this was reasonable evidence that these scratchings and writings are at least on occasions the owners name. I noticed that on Daniels Chikahide Kai Gunto that not only is there a surrender tag but also legible characters under the fuchi. Daniel is there any connection between the name on the surrender tag and the characters written under the fuchi ? Does anyone else out there look at this minutia ? Ian Brooks

Thomas , I admire and covet both of your Kyu Gunto. Could you share with us what the blades are ? Ian Brooks

Brian , I have a tachi signed with the two character Mei Tadayoshi which is Tokubetsu Hozon . . I have collected oshigata of these two character mei from various sources over the years and all are signed tachimei so I guess this rules yours out ( although I am pretty sure that you know this.) . So far as I can tell these blades with the two character mei were made around 1610 Ian Brooks ( I dropped the LLB as no one rose to the bait )

Like Paul I wonder whether this rubbish ought to be given any air however when I see that the gullible are accepting this as factual then I think that it needs to be responded to. Karl , I looked in my copy of Hizento Shiko by Kataoka Published in 1974 and there are about thirty large sized oshigata by shodai Tadayoshi arranged in roughly chronological order . The Hi character in the first blade listed ( Circa 1600 ) has the Hi written the same as the Hi shown in your Code for the 1st Gen . The other 29 oshigata show the Hi character that you show for Munenaga. Does this mean a ) that Tadayoshi made and signed the first blade and also made the remaining blades which Munenaga signed for him b ) that Tadayoshi made and signed the first blade and that Munenaga both made and signed the other twenty nine c ) that I have misunderstood your Code . If so what am I not understanding d ) that the code is nonsense I also had a cursory look at the Nidai Tadahiro shown in Kataoka's book and couldn't find a single one using the Hi character that you show Nidai Tadahiro as using. Have you read Meito Zukan by Fujishiro Matsuo ( April 1980 ) which has a very thorough analysis ot the mei of the 1st and 2nd generations? Ian Brooks LLB

I think your head must be spinning from having drunk too much at Christmas time . Wait until you sober up and have a listen to the sound advice that you are being given . Ian Brooks

Hi Grant , this looks like a good quality piece and I can see no reason to think that it would be cast . I feel sure that no one would apply the quality finishing touches that this has to something that is cast . There is a great article on Soten tsuba elsewhere on the site . I would think that if you spent $250 on papers then they would probably tell you what you already know ie Soten school . Its a nice piece that is well worth owning in my opinion . Ian Brooks

Hi Gary , I looked at a couple more books last night and saw that on page 281 of the Shinto volume of Nihonto Koza there is a Tadahiro dated Kanei six where the date inscription starts below the mekugi ana . I guess this shows once again that there are always exceptions to the norm . I think though that if you take the unusual placement of the date , the absence of the diamond and the odd Tada into account ,then it is highly likely that the mei is not right. Ian Brooks

Hi Gary , the placement of the date looks wrong to me. I quickly checked some of my books and in all of the mei by 1st gen Tadahiro that I looked at the date inscription starts above the mekugi ana . In yours it starts below the mekugi ana which makes me very sceptical about its authenticity. Karl is seeing things if he thinks that he can see mizukage in those photos. In reality mizukage is hard to see. It runs at a 45% angle to the machi and appears mostly in early works by the first generation . It just doesn't appear in the photos of your sword. I would also be troubled that as it purports to be a first generation piece the top stroke of the Hiro character is not the usual diamond shape Others will no doubt dissect each of the characters but to me the Tada also looks way off for a Tadahiro made circa 1630 Ian Brooks

I don't either Thomas. I think that you have come up with the correct explanation . Ian Brooks

Thanks Thomas that's an interesting photo . I think board member Alan from Sydney has one of these on his Kiyomitsu naval sword . If you read this Al you might perhaps remind me whether the cord is attached to the saya or sarute . Ian Brooks

Hi Ben , the "tassel" is a really unusual accessory . In about 40 years of collecting I have seen only one or two of these . The one that I can recall was on a shin gunto and like yours was attached to the sarute . Like you I had assumed that it was some form of tassel. It is interesting but doesn't add any value to the sword. Thomas if used as lock straps they must have been frustrating to use and were probably discarded as being impractical . Whilst I can see that it could be used to stop the sword coming out of the scabbard it looks to me like it would be a messy exercise if you wanted to get your sword out quickly with this " lock strap " in place. Am I right that getting the sword out would be complicated or am I missing something ? I covet a couple of your pieces by the way . Ian brooks

I have said it before and I will say it again , anyone who is foolish enough to buy anything off Komonjo deserves to be ripped off . I hope you haven't been Joel but I don't like your chances. Ian Brooks

I visited this museum about fifteen years ago and as Ian says it is hard to find but really worthwhile . The tanto on display were even more mouthwatering than the pieces Tony has shown . Another fine museum in Italy is the Stibbert museum in Florence . If you are ever in Florence and tire of renaissance paintings then Stibbert is a must . Stibbert was an English army officer, from memory, who indulged himself when it came to collecting . On his death he donated his villa and his collections to the city . He had a fantastic collection of arms and armour . There was also a large room full of Japanese arms and armour . Some of his pieces are also in the Russell Robinson book. Ian Brooks

In the fourth photo in the second set of photographs there is a worrying mark about an inch up from the machi . Is this a problem ? Ian Brooks