Bruce Pennington

John, Crimson Mist Militaria has a couple of gold-colored seppa for sale, but I don't see a black one today. You might try contacting the owner and letting him know what you need. He might have sources to find one.

Nice one, Nazar! Shaped nakago jiri and no heat stains, so likely a surplus blade from war production. Checking the chart, with our duplicate numbers, most have one blade that has finished jiri and the other/s do not, supporting the theory that the finished blades were surplus and the unfinished blades were made for the souvenir contract.

The official appraisal process called, Shinsa, is only for traditionally made blades. Your appraisal is by googling eBay and see what these swords are selling for. They are going for $1200 plus or minus a few hundred depending on the condition of the blade and condition of the fittings. If by “restoration“ you mean a polishing, I had my non-traditionally made blade, a Mantetsu, polished by David Hofhine He did a fabulous job. It will cost you over $2000. But my sword came to me freely when my father died and I did not mind spending the money on it.

Tyler, John summed it up. A couple of close-up shots of the blade body & tip showing the steel skin and hamon (temper line) could help us show you what we look for in analyzing traditional vs non-traditional. On the academic side, we've done extensive research on these stamps. Your stamp, the larger Seki stamp, was used by the Seki Cutlery Manufacturers Association. They were asked by the sword industry to inspect blades made by the Seki area smiths to weed out poor showato (non-traditionally made blades) that were hurting the industry's reputation. A massive demand for samurai-styled blades happened when the military decided to replace their Western-styled sabers with new swords made in the styles of the old samurai swords. The rush to produce them resulted in some really poor quality blades that threatened the quality reputation of the industry. So, the Cutlery Assoc. inspected blades and put the Showa stamp, and later, the large Seki stamp on blades that passed inspection. Now to the heart of the matter. We only have two documents that discussed the practice. One, a page on the Seki City website, said that "all blades were inspected" implying that both traditional and non-traditional blades were being inspected and stamped. However, our other source, a page on the Ohmura website, cites a chart from back then showing the tally of inspected blades, and a note on the chart stated that the numbers do not include traditionally made blades "as they were not inspected." So, it is our current understanding that blades with these two stamps were not traditionally made. Most of them look pretty darn nice, having attractive hamon. So, it is likely the smiths may have used most of the traditional techniques, but something like another steel than tamahagane was used, and/or the blade was oil quenched rather than water quenched. Hope that's not too much to absorb, but sometimes it's good to hear the whole story.

The large Seki stamp at top gives you a bit of an idea of when your blade was made. It was used by the civilian Seki Cutlery Manufacturers Association from 1940 to 1944, but most blades we see that have dates were made in 1942. So, a general idea.

Posting photo for future when link goes dead:

Anton, The smiths often got quite stylish and 'loose' with the kanji. But with practice (and believe me I have a long way to go!), you start to recognize some in spite of their handwriting. From right to left on the "NORI" kanji, you can clearly see the long vertical stroke. Then, you see the short vertical stroke, and finally, on the left is the 3-box stack with 2 'feet' at the bottom.

That's a great work you've done there! The kokuin appears to be his name in the stamp, which is something I've seen with a few other smiths that used hot stamps. I've added it to the next Stamps Doc update. You've given me a one more TAN stamped blade and a few Seki stamped blades to add to my charts as well, thank you.

Anton, There is no way that this one read "Kanetsugu". Now, there were smiths that changed their art name over the span of their careers. Whether Kanetsugu was one of them, I cannot say. Mal Cox, @mecox, could if anyone can.

Thanks John! I have 4 other Masayasu with the same stamp, now 5. I have a few other smiths with the Ko on the nakago, but they are either on the mune or if on the face, it is together with the stacked cannon ball stamp. Masayasu seems to be the only one that had the Ko marked in this fashion.

No date, Ed? Usually there isn't one, but worth asking,

Nice one, Sam, thanks!

So, the wardrobe supervisor got the NCO tassel right, at least!

Hm. Then we’re back to square one. Because we don’t know where that rig came from.

It sure opens up a different view of these mixed pieces that show up today. Can anyone identify his rank and those wings on his chest? Another thing to keep in mind is that I once read long ago that these photographers had studio swords and weapons for people that did not show up with their own. Even if that were the case, though, I cannot imagine that he would be using a piece together sword.

Oops, I see the difference. I'll correct my file.

Yes, seems like Hirata Kanetaka - 兼隆 (Kanetaka) KANETAKA (兼隆), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Gifu – “Kanetaka” (兼隆), real name Hirata Kaname (平田要), born November 16th 1896, he worked as a guntō smith

Withe sword 1, there is no way to tell if it was signed. The amount of corrosion is enough to have obscured a signature if it was there. The third has the sakura version tsuba (hand guard) used by the civilian branch of the military called Gunzoku. They wore military styled uniforms and did many non-combat jobs like maintenance, admin, etc. It also has what appears to be a black leather cover, correct? If so, the Gunzoku official likely was serving with the navy. Go to this page for some good general instructions for sword care: Japanese Sword Care.

I have never seen an original WWII bag for sale by itself. The new ones, from Japan, range from $50 to $200. Flags range from $50 to $1,000. I'd say you'd have carte blanche to ask whatever you like on such a unique item.

Hm. I had seen the mark earlier and assumed it was simply a flaw in the steel. But after seeing another one of his with a mark in the same place, I tend to agree with you. There are many blades with punched dots, but up to now, they are always (there's that word!) near the jiri or on the mune. This does seem a unique personal practice of some sort.

That's also a cool piece of history, as it has documentation of it's confiscation after the war. Very nice.

Nazar, Looks like you have more of them than I do. I only have 7 with Seki stamp, and 6 with Tan. All 13 have the full mei, though, compared to yours with 2 kanji. I don't see him in Sesko's list, so Slough is my only source for listing him as Nagamura Kiyonobu from Gifu. Maybe @mecox has a write-up about him in one of his articles?

I admit, too, John that I'd never noticed that the 25s were stamped on the hand guard like the 32s.

This one is posted over on this Warrelics thread. Don't know about a smith, yet, might be an older blade based upon the mekugi location. Will update if he posts it.

Thank you for your discussion, Nazar. It’s nice to see you enjoying and growing in your hobby.