Bruce Pennington

Looks like something made by Hanwei. I just checked their site and didn't see any WWII replicas, but I have seen examples of their work posted on NMB. Top notch workmanship.

I just checked his listing. He only is shipping within the United States. Sorry!

Not common, but we have seen one or two, like that one. I posted a while back and @Lareon commented on.

A bad one for auction of fleabay HERE

eBay Link

I have often heard that the tsuka wood can dry out and shrink over the decades. Maybe this is what happened in this case? What about the idea of folding small pieces of paper to stuff underneath the loose places? Side question: Is this on your Nagamitsu blade I have on file?

It is an old myth that the steel fuchi and tsuba were late war. Richard Fuller has a brief chart showing them seemingly randomly scattered throughout the serial numbers. On that, though, @Kiipu might have a more specific answer.

Posting for discussion's sake. I've been imagining this style pattern as representing a stone wall, but this one makes me wonder. strange for a wall shape, unless the artist just ran with the idea and modified it to enhance beauty. Posted by @Nazar HERE.

That's a great story and a nice 95, thanks for sharing! Sam or Thomas will help you with the date estimate. The Tokyo 1st arsenal didn't make any efforts to stamp the steel fuchi, only Nagoya did that.

The Sadakiyo I have on file match those, too, and are unlike the one in question.

Made in November 1944. I think you have the name right. Sesko lists 2 by that name working during the war: "MICHIZANE (道真), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Gifu – “Michizane” (道真), real name Kosaka Takao (小坂隆男), born February 20th 1921, he worked as guntō smith and died December 17th 1964 MICHIZANE (道真), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Gifu – “Michizane” (道真), family name Nagao (長尾), he worked as guntō smith, ryōkō no retsu (Akihide)" You got the small Seki stamp right, of the Nagoya Army Arsenal Seki inspector. The other is the "Gifu" stamp. Not much known about it. It showed up in 1943 - 1945 on Gifu/Seki area blades. Likely another Nagoya arsenal inspector.

That's great! First one from him in the RJT chart. I'll post it that way.

Thanks, Conway! Who did the translation and said Sadakiyo? After looking at them both in Sesko's list, I'd lean more to Sadatoshi, too. Interesting that he was the son of Sadakiyo: "SADATOSHI (貞寿), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Niigata – “Sadatoshi” (貞寿), real name Uemura Jirō (上村二郎), born 1916, he studied under his father Sadakiyo (貞清) and worked as rikugun-jumei-tōshō, jōko no jōi (Akihide), Fourth Seat at the 6th Shinsaku Nihontō Denrankai (新作日本刀展覧会, 1941)" I only have 2 Sadakiyo on file and both use standard writing rather than this 'cursive' (or rather a mix of both in this case) on yours. I don't have any Sadatoshi on file for comparison. Have you searched for other Sadatoshi examples?

@NewbieSwordGuy Is this mounted in a Type 3, contingency model, or a kaigunto?

English version: "Katana - Sword officer of the Imperial Japanese Navy Kai Gunto, also known as kaigunto, from the II - Japan - Edo Period (1600-1868)"