Bruce Pennington

And I love photos like this that show very unusual fittings. If I had seen this one on sale on eBay or even presented here, I would say it could be a post war Bubba job.

Hi Harvey, Don't know if it's just me, but these photos didn't come out. Seem strangely digitized. So far, looks fine, but would love to see some normal photos.

Yamanaka V4 NL08 On another note, can someone please give me the smith name above the kao on this, from the post above?

Made by Yoshichika, in 1944. A Gifu smith. "YOSHICHIKA (吉近), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Gifu – “Yoshichika” (吉近), real name Yoshioka Tetsujirō (吉岡鉄次郎)" Might have a small Seki stamp near the top. It's a nice looking sword and lucky to have the leather cover in such good shape. Company grade officer's tassel is a plus. Worth the price.

Here's your guy: "KANEMUNE (兼宗), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Gifu – “Kanemune” (兼宗), real name Fukumoto Koichi (福本小市), born October 14th 1902, adopted son-in-law of Fukumoto Amahide (天秀), he died on March 8th 1977, ryōkō no jōi (Akihide)" I appreciate how you feel about your grandfather and this sword that represents so much. If you haven't read up on caring for the blade, this is a good site: Japanese Sword Care

Mindy, Is that a small mark at the end of the nagako? Could I get a closer shot of it?

Don't know if you have this one yet, Marcin. Long mei with general's tassel in a UK auction HERE. They know what they have and are asking a pretty penny as expected.

Wow, nice to see we are finally making some progress in the collecting world! ZevAntiques has a souvenir at auction HERE with a title of "US 8th Army Japan Occupation Souvenir Sword" and a full accurate description! Hurray!!! It's the first souvenir on file with an Inaba blade, third with "29"

Do us all a favor and remove the screw that is holding on the handle. The underlying tang could be signed and dated.

@BANGBANGSAN What do you think about this one? I have other blades with various shop mei. Think this our same Hyakuren-do?

Thanks, Trystan! Very interesting information. @mecox Do you have info linking this smith to this shop? If not, looks like you do now. The other one I have on file was made by Kanehisa. Also just found this mumei one, also bearing the Seki stamp, beginning at this post:

Chandler, You'll find a more in depth discussion of that here, but I don't think anyone knows the answer for sure:

Ted, No way to know whether an officer or NCO equivalent. Could have been either.

Great, thanks, Conway! @SteveM Steve, can you confirm Kaneyuki?

The other side is the date - 1942

Hi BP. First a forum technical note. If you actually go by "BP", then never mind, but if that's not what you go by, please go to your profile page and add a first name. It's NMB policy and we all like to talk to real people. Thanks! So, for decades the collecting community have held the all-brown tassel to be a late-war army tassel (Navy is all brown, but it's a richer, darker color and of course found on kaigunto). Even the reference books call it that. However, a couple years ago, a respected researcher found the 1943 Uniform Regulation Change that spoke of the brown tassel and said that it was assigned to the Gunzoku. I asked Nick if the wording would have allowed that the tassel was already in use by the army, but was now also assigned to Gunzoku. Nick answered that due to the wording, it would have been specific to just the Gunzoku. That's all I can say. If you would like to read his discussion, see this: The All Brown Army Tassel - Nick Komiya

Here is a video showing how the remove the handle (tsuka). These blades were often signed and dated by the sword smiths. The all-brown tassel was used by the civil branch of the military, called Gunzoku. The wore military styled uniforms and performed many non-combat functions like maintenance, admin, etc.

I like that one, Sam. Actual example of a Type 8/19 being worn in a formal function, rather than a photo posing setting.

Nice sword, Detlev! Stamps an Japanese swords are commonly called arsenal stamps, but there are a couple - the Showa stamp and the larger Seki stamp - are not. Both were used by the Seki Cutlery Manufacturers Association. The large Seki, like yours was used between 1940 - 1944.

The kakihan looks like a cut test kao.

John, No flack from me, brother. I think you're the guy that started to study the painted numbers, right? If so, you are currently the resident expert! I do think you are right about the colors and number schemes being specific to shops, forges, and arsenals. We have that one photo of several blades lined up with white, or the pale blue, numbers. With that in mind, the 2-digit black numbering on these souvenirs is specific to Tenshozan, which actually backs up your point.

Hit a minor milestone today, as I found a 4th blade painted "45". We've had some triples so far, but this is the first fourth. It's a Toyosuke blade with the small circled anchor. On auction at this eBay page. She's asking kaigunto price of $2,200 which is a bit over market price for a souvenir. I sent a message to her. We'll see if she responds.

While we wait, it seems to have been made in the Indo-Persian (Turkish?) style. One example, of many, but the handles are different

Unusual to see one posing with his sword drawn.

The symbol is a family crest, call a kamon or mon. There are guys here who can give you some info on that. They originated way back in the Samurai days, and each clan had it's own symbol. Well before WWII, Japan opened it up to letting anyone have one that wanted one, and by WWII many mon were being used by multiple different families. Some of them can be narrowed down to a shorter list of names, but you won't find a specific family name that can be tied to it. I have one with the old Fujiwara clan symbol, which is cool, but the guy that used it in WWII could have had any name, literally. The fittings are Type 98 Japanese officer sword fittings. You can read up on these on Ohmura's site: Military Swords of Imperial Japan (Gunto). The blade may be something from pre-WWII, which is why the guys are asking you to remove the handle (tsuka). Very easy to do.