Dave R

What it boils down to is that Wakizashi length blades were fitted out as Shin-Gunto, and carried by Japanese officers in the field, so they are a genuine WW2 item. There is no evidence that they were reserved for or especially desired by pilots, tankers or submariners.

Danny Lynch aka "The Great Stromboli" was one such man. Apparently he ran a nice line recovering Gunto from the harbour bottom after they had been dumped, courtesy of a couple of Ama diving girls. Not really my story to tell, but a couple of people here remember him well. Oddly enough a Lady friend of mine remembers him as her trainer in fire eating, but was not at all surprised to find out about his endeavors in Japan. https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/great-stromboli-daniel-lynch-death-16151487

Looks legit, but the vendor could have described it better. Also seems unaware of what the Sho stamp really meant.

He will have been doing it already if he thought it a viable proposition. What we now have is a way of detecting them.

Leather has problems and benefits, the problem being it promotes verdigris on copper alloy, the benefit is that it is easy and forgiving. Adam has made a good suggestion, depending on the amount of play I would consider making one/two out of aluminium foil.

It was actually the other way round, as I understand it! After the Meiji restoration the Navy was the senior service and got a lot of old samurai family recruits. The early Imperial army was actually used to suppress the samurai .

"Atresia" is a medical term referring to the narrowing of a tube such as the throat or intestine.... Given the vagarities of translation from one language to another, I would understand that what was referred to was the "throat" of the scabbard, and widening it to make sheathing easier.

Usualy got a stainless blade like other wallhangers.

He probably saw no point in doing so given how few people would be able to make sense of it. His quote is good enough for me though, and settled something that had bugged me a little for some time.

Uchigatana is a commonly used term for these shorter swords. I have also heard them called "Shirato". To quote "Kodachi are from the early Kamakura period (1185–1333) and are in the shape of a tachi. Kodachi are mounted in tachi style but with a length of less than 60 cm" I strogly suspect that we use most of these terms in a different manner to any Japanese, collector or non collector.

Is anyone oiling the blades?

To the best of my knowledge, you treat it as you would any clean nakago. Do nothing apart from normal maintenance. The patina or lack of same is an indication of when the job was done. Repatination is done because some event removed the patina formerly there, faking patination is just that, faking with intent to decieve.

I would describe it as a short Katana. I know the convention about anything under 24 inches being a Wakizashi, but original Edo/samurai era rules were clear that Wakizashi for Samurai could only be 20 inches in blade length, later amended to 18 inches, and a commoners Wakizashi could be no more 14 inches long. Samurai katana could not be more than 28 inches long. You can even see this in surviving wakizashi that show evidence of post manufacture reduction in length to fit the new regulations. 22 inches was within regulation length for a new made Shin-Gunto, and old blades down to 21'5 were acceptable in the sword buying programme of 1942. I strongly suspect that the modern convention is the result of post war Japanese authorities redefining sword lengths to save blades from the occupation destruction programme.

You can also find Army versions similar to this. Not Rinji Seishiki, but a plain version of the 98. I have found a few online, usually with the field saya, and variable quality blades. I just saw them as economy versions, but now I see them as late war. I wonder if we can provoke Mr Komiya into finding the documentation.

For safeties sake I would leave it a lot longer. What I would do, is try the blade in the saya for a minute or so, then remove, wipe and oil and repeat for a few days. .... Better safe than sorry.

Other people have said it all. My main contribution is to point out that the last "working owner" of the blade would not have seen it as in any way inferior, in fact as a mount officialy approved of by the (god) Emperor and taken to serve the same, he would have seen it as the swords best ever avatar. On another note, I buy bare blades, usually nihonto and remount them, if I get one in the original saya I am delighted. I use antique tosugo, real Honoki, and Ito imported from Japan, and genuine Same. I even use Washi for hishigame ....... It is still a "replica" set of mounts! When selling on, I am clear to the buyer what he is getting. I have two blades, one a Gunto and one a late Edo Wakizashi in original untouched antique mounts, I have no intention of "improving" them, ever.

I think I can say with confidence that such was not available in Edo period Japan.

Once a saya is closed, how would you tell it had dribbled, if it had been detectable I have no doubt it would have been corrected. I have seen some real surprises in old dismantled koshirae, it's why I buy them when cheap enough. I learn a lot from them.

I have a .22 rifle cleaning rod that I have used for the job. The trouble is that you can never tell how good a job you did. The other thing I use is one of the compressed air cans used to clean computers and keyboards, it only gets the loose stuff out but it's a start.

Nope, it was only detectabe after the partialy split saya was opened up for regluing, and was then scraped out with craft blades and small jewellers files. NB, never ever let abrasive papers or cloths anywhere near saya or tsuka, use blades and files only.

If you are buying online anyway, go for the Imperial housholds own supplier. They are cheaper for some stuff as others buy from them to resell. I have found them helpfull and easy to deal with, and they take Paypal. https://www.namikawa-ltd.com/

Dribble!

When repairing some saya I have seen clear evidence of dribbles of rice glue inside, so it had to be fairly moist when used.

I wrap the blade in newspaper, which is something I have seen done by a Japanese professional while they were working on a new habaki. I have also used cardboard tubes from the centre of a roll of cloth as a transport safety aid on a bare blade. As for rice glue, make it up as a paste rather than a liquid and apply with a stiff brush. It is an air drying glue, so will need a few days before you can be confident it is dry. I use it a fair bit, and I wait for a week or more, rather than take any risk of rust on a blade.

I think you have the right of it there. It is the Forum that I miss though, there were some good tips and information on Ito-maki. The main site, which I never even looked at before was not the one I was interested in. Sometimes I get very closely focused and miss the bigger picture.