Bruce Pennington

@Scogg @BANGBANGSAN and anyone else with the reference books - Any ideas?

The whole thing looks to have been re-done. Tassel, menugi, ito, and possibly the same' is all new. But to answer your question - No, never have.

Nice Doug! It also has that mystery bar/loop on the tsuba!

We see these haikan every now and then, but I don't think we've posted one here. It's the kind with an extra hinge. Posted by @Tristan MacEwen HERE.

Thanks Tristan! You can see the cut ends of the tassel in person. Does it look like it was deteriorating or just cut off? Was the end melted to prevent unraveling?

Dave, @Tristan MacEwen posted this one ON THIS THREAD. Can't tell if it was cut and ends melted to prevent the weave from coming apart?

Hey guys, I'm away from my books for a couple more months. Is this something listed in either Dawson or Fuller? I don't have photos of the rest of the sword, yet, and I've asked for shots of the backstrap, handguard, and blade. The workmanship looks a bit poor, like a fake, but I've never seen a fake with such an emblem.

Steve, You might already know, but the blue/brown tassel was used by Company grade officers - Capt's and Lt's - as well as the equivalent grade Gunzoku personnel (civilian force working for the military). I've attempted to enhance, a bit, the mei. Maybe someone can make it out. You might need to take some more shots with lighting/shadows that enhance the writing

And just to make you crazy, Ha!, there are dots at the mune jiri, as well as the ones with dots counting as high as 11:

Alex, The black paint are assembly numbers, something like "16138"'ish. Can you give me a clear, closer shot of this:

Tristan, Do us a favor and post pics of both sides of the nakago (tang). Also would love good shots of that haikan (belt hanger loop) and the blue/brown tassel with the cut off ends. We have threads interested in those things. If you want an evaluation of the blade, whether traditionally made or not, we'll need a couple or close, clear shots of the hamon (temper line) and surface steel. It's a nice looking Type 98 in combat saya.

They got really close with a lot of the details, yet all of the details are off. Yet cosmoline on a fake? I don't know the history of the Chinese faker industry, but this would imply they got started right away after the war when cosmoline was still used by G.I.s bringing stuff home. I hate trying to evaluate swords like this that look fake (reproduction) yet have clear age commensurate with the WWII era.

Just checked old threads. Plenty of long mei, no bohi. One example of long mei, with bohi, but no date. So this one is quite rare! Good luck with the sale.

Might be a small Seki stamp at the top above the mei. Too bad it's blurry.

A variant of the 4-Sakura pattern

Wow! Unique. And it's listed with 2 other military tsuba, so the implication would be that it's WWII, and military related, i.e. Gunzoku. The price is amazing! $6,97 USD. The shipping would cost more that the 3 tsuba!

FWIW - I have one other Masayuki on file with 2 dots: The dots are a mystery. Used to think they were done by fittings shops (and still could be) but I've got one or two on file from a hundred years back or so. This one is a Koto era waki:

Thanks Steve! The guy actually had it listed as a Mantetsu! Ha!

Adding to Brian's post - none of the fittings are legitimate Japanese craftsmanship.

Here's the article, Ron: The Mysterious Naval Landing Forces Sword - A Souvenir. You'll want a copy (free download) to keep with your sword Executive summary: 8th Army PX (military version of Walmart) contracted with the Tenshozan Forge to make over 8,700 of these souvenirs. They were sold to occupation forces in Japan and later in Korea in 1950. Many of the blades were war suplus, but the fittings were crafted with, what I believe, to be an intentional mix of army and navy fittings to make it clear to customs officers that this was not a War Trophy, which had been outlawed for shipping. Your nakago is finished, so to me, it has a chance of being a war surplus blade. But that's speculation on my part. By the way, I grew up in S.E. Dallas. You been there long?

And that's what counts!

A guy has this listed as a Mantetsu! HA! That's really bad. But it's in that "cursive" style, so I have no hope.

Man, I hate the cursive! I'm barely recognizing some of the print style writing!

Steve, Forgive me, but while your question is definitely interesting (I have never seen anything like this), I'm dying to know that the translation is on the paper (asuming it is the nakago) and hoping to get a shot of the tsuba.

The hash marks are a modified Roman numeral system. You can see two single strikes at the top for the one, one, and the five strikes on one side and the three strikes on the other. So the number matches the rest of the fittings. That’s a nice sword, with a really nice hamon. It’ll be fun chasing around to find the missing parts. But it’s worth the effort.