Bruce Pennington

I am away from my chart right now, but the earliest dated blade with the showa stamp is 1935. The massive majority of them show up in 1940 and 1941. So you probably misunderstood “1931“ to be 1941.

Marc, Could I get a shot of the date-side and showa stamp, please? I suspect it's later than 1931. I've never seen one that early.

Thanks John, yes it's on file. Got it from an ebay sale back in April '23, then Lee Bray (edit: RobCarter3) in June '23. It's one of the blades with the early Nan stamp on the mune.

You'll find the answers to both questions on the links above. We wrote a bigger article combining all the sources into one, posted here at NMB: SMR - The Mantetsu Blade In short - The South Manchurian Railway (Mantetsu) mined and produced their own steel, invented their own sword manufacturing process. Originally there was no mei, simply the SMR logo stamp. But soon they made them with the Koa Isshin slogan, made by Mantetsu mei and date. In 1943 (very late '42) they dropped the slogan. Finally in 1945 a new slogan - Konan essei - appeared briefly. Some mumei blades are also seen in '45. It is not known, but debated, about whether the non- Koa blades were made by the Nanman Army Arsenal or all blade made by SMR and some of them polished and finished at Nanman. We know factually that SMR sent unfinished blades to Tokyo 1st arsenal, and that some blades were polished at Nanman. But any more than that is speculation. As for machines, the massive majority of WWII blades were made with the assistance of machines. SMR used them extensively. The Ohmura site shows several photos of them.

Thanks Dee! Toward the end, he briefly touches on actual sword use in combat during WWII. People often ask about it. We have a small number of stories and a few post-war confessionals, but not a lot of real record of it. Mostly officers and NCO's holding them aloft leading a charge. Yet, in every war, troops wind up in hand-to-hand combat. I suspect gunto were put to use more than we have record of.

Hi Matt! Do you have one, or contemplating buying one?

Kyle, Would you do me a favor and post the mei-side? Looks to be stainless? A few smiths used this form of dating during the war, but not many. I know I've seen a smith that does this, and I can't recall who it was, and it's killin' me.

Thanks Dee, nice reply. The first line of my post was a suggestion for Matt, in case it wasn't clear. And now ... here I am talking about talking rather than swords!! Ha!

A simple "OH! Haven't seen that thread" would sufice. Nothing I like better than hoping to read about swords, then spend the rest of the morning reading people arguing.

Thanks John & John! I just saved both to my Translation file. No, I think my buying days are over.

Bingo! Sesko has that mei: "KUNIYOSHI (国慶), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Akita – “Kuniyoshi” (国慶), “Ugo Honjō-jū Kuniyoshi kore o saku” (羽後本荘住国慶作之), real name Suzuki Yoshitarō (鈴木吉太郎), born March 1st 1904, he studied from 1937 under Shibata Ka (柴田果), Kurihara Akihide (栗原昭秀), Konno Akihira (今野昭平) and Akimoto Akitomo (秋元昭友), he also 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)" Thanks John! I still don't have all the various ways of writing numbers down. Appreciate you guys!!!

Guys, I know I've seen this second kanji before, but I can't recall it or find it anywhere. Also, there is an extra kanki in the date, below "Showa", maybe "mid" or "late"? Thanks! For those filing stuff - stamped "243" on the nakagojiri

Cool, John, good luck!

John, is that on a 25?

Showa 18 = 1943. There is a small Nagoya Army Arsenal "NA" just below the habaki edge on the dated side. It would be good to see if there is a star above the name (mei) under the habaki. I have some of his on file with star stamp. Also, could you check the back edge of the nakago (tang) for stamped numbers, please?

Bill, Here's my favorite photo for that question. No one knows why there are matching numbers on fittings of some gunto, but not others.

One place is the NMB For Sale section: For Sale - Swords and Edged Weapons

That's a new one for the "Unknown" files!

Thanks John, I do like to file examples as we find them.

Nice collection, David! Too bad so many blade tips and blades were damaged by water getting in the saya. This looks like it had a nice hamon. You might know already, but it was a Type 98 Army officer sword in "combat saya" or "informal saya" which would have had a leather cover. They quite often went missing over the years.

Agree with above, and the paint is faint at top, but maybe 1625.

That fact alone, would put all these in question. Originally, John, PNSSHOGUN, was concerned about the authenticity of the mei. We have seen a number of blades coming out of Japan that were likely originally mumei and had fake mei added. These could fall into that category. Is it possible they were all minitogawa blades that had the fake Captain inscription added recently?

Gorgeous kaigunto and blade! Nice presentation, too, John, thank you!

Hi Dave! Don't know how much you know about the WWII swords, but here's some more about the sword: Type 98 Japanese Army Officer sword (gunto). You can read about them, and see great examples, on Ohmura's site: Military Swords of Japan (gunto) - Ohmura Basic Care for Japanese Swords - Japaneseswordindex.com The painted numbers on the side opposite the mei (signature) are almost too faint, but appear to be "4597". They often match the stamped numbers on the metal fittings, as they were used to keep all the parts together during processing/manufacture. It's not uncommon to see unmatching numbers, and we don't know for sure why. It could imply that the original fittings were damage and replaced by new ones during the war. The stamped number, which, I think, is "988" is another matter. On Army blades, they seem to be production numbers, in sequence by each smith. They might be in order to track a certain number of blades made for a military contract, but we don't really know. The orientation of the number on the end fits a pattern that puts your blade most likely in 1942. They changed orientation over the years in a fairly consistent manner, so I feel comfortable with the date, but it's still just based upon my observations.

Rock Island protects themselves by using the word "style" in the description, like "Japaese style sword", "Japanese style NCO sword" ect.