PNSSHOGUN

If memory serves me correctly, large swords were popular in that period among certain sword schools.

There was a recent period where items could be submitted in tandem for Hozon & Tokubetsu Hozon, which made it appear that they were handing out TH papers like candy. They have since reverted this, and I wonder if the stricter Juyo & TBJ sessions are a product of an attempt to restore the status of these attributions. There has been many discussion and opinions on certain Juyo sessions being "weak" (i.e. large numbers of swords passing, with some being questionable), given the absolute faith the market has in the NBTHK it would make sense they stamp out any perceptions that the value has been watered down. Who knows, maybe in thirty years all of these NBTHK papers will be obsolete and 'worthless' like the previous papers.....

Hi Jared, if you share some pictures of the mounts that would help narrow down what branch the Japanese officer was. If you know where your father served you could potentially narrow down the Japanese units, but as Sam mentioned it's difficult unless there is a name or surrender tag associated with the sword.

Certainly a candidate, especially with all of the Count Ito documents and tags remaining. Perhaps just submitting the Koshirae for papers would be a nice addition to the provenance.

Some authentic Onshi Habaki. He was noted as a recipient of an Imperial Gift sword when graduating from the Army War College in 1916. That was well before the introduction of the Shin Gunto, and Shibata Ka's working period as a Tosho. The other thorn in this is the fact Yamashita was well out of favour with the Emperor due to his association with the Imperial Way faction and the February 16th Incident.

Portrait of Tojo Hideki with his special Gunto, this is the same sword now in the MacArthur Museum.

Not sure what to make of this sword, made by Shibata Ka with Yamashita's name inscribed on the Omote. It has the Kanji for 御賜 Onshi - Imperial gift, yet Shibata Ka hasn't been known to make such swords before and generally these were limited to the Yasukuni Shrine smiths, the Horii Mon, and the Gassan Mon. https://thebestantique.com/zh/product/general山下奉文-98type-sword/

Sword No.166 in Han Bing Siong's "Japanese Swords in Dutch collections" is noted as being found in military mounts before being polished and achieving Juyo Token:

Great read, it would be nice to have more examples of their works and scans of the original documents sprinkled throughout.

That is a very good addition, congratulations. Rather fortunate that the original Koshirae and inventory tags remain, and heartening to see other pieces have been kept together after all these years.

The Hideyoshi Koshirae also appear in Paul Martin's book:

Yoshinobu is more of a first name, sometimes with these tags there is both Kanji and English text to confirm a name.

Hello Niels, welcome to the forum. Your friend has a naval officers sword, or Kai Gunto, which looks to be in decent shape. Value will depend on the quality of the blade, which we will need more photos of to determine. There's a instructional guide on how to safely remove the handle to check the maker:

These are often fairly crude and can vary from having real old blades to oil tempered pieces, it would be interesting to see if you can get the nut off for a picture of the tang. For $5 it's a neat bit of history.

Perhaps a variant of Katabami? https://irohakamon.com/kamon/katabami/mitsuwarikatabami.html