Bruce Pennington

Or the guys that study real paper money so that when a counterfeit shows up, they recognize it. Yours is better than most we see.

I defer to your expertise, John, but what do you think about he nakago shape and two holes? Not a standard WWII nakago .... unless it's something late war? But hamon seems too good for late war.

Nice learning another reason/method for passing these out. I think it was Fuller that described the fact that of the 600,000 swords collected by the Allies, they saved half (I think he stated somewhere around 260,000) to be "distributed." Your example is clearly one of many ways they must have passed them out.

Ha, I needed a thumbs up and an laugh emoji for that! Marcin - there is no such thing as pinging me too much, brother. That's the first Nagamitsu with stamped numbers I've seen in quite a while. I appreciate it greatly. It is an interesting one, because the next earlier one, in fact the earliest Nagamitsu with stamped number on mune, is 阪イ143. In fact, the great majority of numbered Nagamitsu have at least a 阪. There were only (before this) 3 on file without such stamps - 695, 2005, and 3973: ND Nagamitsu (RJT) 阪イ143 on mune Volker, NMB, RS ND Nagamitsu (RJT) 阪イ0313 on mune Ooitame; NMB, RS ND Nagamitsu (RJT) 695 on mune Spidersrule123,NMB,RS ND Nagamitsu (RJT) 阪1431 Cillo, pg 124 ND Nagamitsu (RJT) 阪1853 on mune Smallsword, ebay RS ND Nagamitsu (RJT) 阪1867 on mune Rancho, NMB, RS ND Nagamitsu (RJT) 阪1884 mune Austin Auction Gallery RS ND Nagamitsu (RJT) 2005 on mune Reeder, NMB ND Nagamitsu (RJT) 阪2201 on mune Zaia86, NMB, RS ND Nagamitsu (RJT) 阪2205 on mune Roromush, NMB, RS ND Nagamitsu, Ichihara Ichiryushi 阪イ2511 on mune Bangbangsan, NMB, RS ND Nagamitsu (RJT) 1阪3490 on mune Vajo; NMB ND Nagamitsu (RJT) 3973 on mune IJASWORDS, NMB broken heart seppa ND Nagamitsu (RJT) 1阪3991 on mune mauser99; NMB

Interesting. Yes, It's on file, but from a year ago, April 2025. Maybe he didn't get his reserve the first time. Thanks Marcin!

Nice find, John, but I agree with Trystan as I can see the drag at the end of the middle and right saya. The one on the left looks as if it's a 95 with a leather covered saya.

This is quite an interesting Type 95! Suya/Tokyo 1st 153713. The tsuka was wrapped over the aluminum. Ito looks like the stuff we see on late war swords. Wear & tear appear to be wartime aged appropriate. That tassel looks pre-WWII, though I'm not studied on those. Found on this ebay sale.

Thanks, Mal. Thought it was something like that. And you beat me to the punch on the mune stamp practice peaking in 1942. I checked my charts to see if it was used predominantly on star-stamped blades, but they were found on non-star blades and Seki stamped blades just as often.

Yes, what Conway said. According to @mecox, the blade was processed by both the Nagoya Army Arsenal and inspected at the Kokura 1st Factory, if I have that right. Did you get a chance to remove the brass habaki and check for a star stamp? @Scogg - Sam, want to transfer this thread over to the Military forum?

I would truly appreciate a photo of those kanji on the mune! Please!

Good stuff, guys, thanks! I'm familiar with Hanwei and Paul Chen products, but don't have his mei down to memory or recognition. Didn't I hear his operation shut down a while back?

Anyone know about this reproduction maker? Fortunately, it's being sold as a reproduction on this Auction. I tried looking them up, but not finding anything. Just a few of the many photos

Can you slide the habaki (brass collar) off to see if there is a star stamp underneath? Yoshitada was an RJT qualified smith. Some of his blades had a star, some had other stamps.

Hi Dave, Here is your guy: "ICHINONJI (一文字), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Gifu – “Ichimonji” (一文字), real name Endō Masayuki (遠藤公之), born October 23rd 1890, he worked as a guntō smith." The stamp is the Showa stamp, used by the civilian Seki Cutlery Manufacturers Association between 1935 and 1942. Most dated blades with the stamp were made in 1940-41.

Another type 95, a copper,owned by Sam, @Scogg, and posted here:

That’s great, Sam!

Thanks guys! That is the earliest "stamp" I have recorded, then. Doubt it was a single stamp, but you know what I mean.

Thank you, Rohan, and please bear another question - photographed in 1948, but the blade is much older, right? Age approximation?

A small matter, but I've started noticing variations on the snap arrangments of these leather covers. Some have one, some two, some three. Of the covers with 3, even those have variations: Posted by @Dick Grande HERE

Doc, It would be cool to see shots of the box and letter, too! Waiting to see the nakago (tang), with everyone else. Here's some good care tips in the meantime: Japanese Sword Care - Japaneseswordindex.com

I would call it very dark brown. But again, I don’t have it in hand either. There are black ones, and while they are not as common, there does not seem to be any significance to them, unless everything else has been painted black. We have many example of those. But even those, we do not know the significance.

Excellent presentation, Brett, love it! On a side note, can you tell if that is a kamon near the nakagojiri?

Charles, I hope you can get a refund unless you just want to use this as a decorative wall hanger piece. Everything is wrong about this. But I will list some things: The handle is brass, but the Japanese used copper and aluminum, never brass. The stamps on the handle are horribly wrong. The Japanese did not put flags and other marks on the copper collar call a habaki. The Fuller groove starts too far down the blade. And the screw and nut through the handle are the wrong style.

We've all read how the order outlawing the wearing of swords, and the following efforts to Westernize Japan's military, decimated the sword making industry. Working from memory, so forgive me if I'm off, but do I recall there were only 7 sword smiths operating when Japan decided to go back to samurai styled blades? My point being, since collectors often increase the value of items that are rare, wouldn't blades made by those smiths, before the big push to train new smiths to increase production, be worth a pretty penny and highly collectable? Just wondering.

Yeah, that hand drawing of the Hiro stamp is pretty bad. Hard to say what they were actually seeing when they did it.