PNSSHOGUN

Hi Paul, no problem with shipping to the UK.

Emperor seems a little ambitious for us lowly fools, perhaps Daimyo as the top rung is slightly more fitting if iterative changes are made?

Very good condition shin gunto general grade tassel. Some minor fraying where it's tied to the Sarute, please see photos. A donation will be made to the board from the sale. $1500usd (~2200 AUD) + shipping

This peculiar Tachi Gunto really beats the band.... https://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/v1199975236

The mounts look to be of the better quality sort, can you please share any further images of the Koshirae?

Good decision Barrett, it may cost more but you'll no doubt find something you like in this Sugata without drawbacks.

The registered and papered swords are rare exceptions to the norm and I wouldn't base any final conclusions from these. For every sho/seki stamped sword with papers in Japan there were likely many that were summarily destroyed.

The Sho stamp indicates some part of the manufacture was not traditional, I would hesitate at calling this Gendaito and would think more along the lines of higher quality Showato.

Samurai related titles or cosmetic options could be good, something fun and low effort.

Nothing shown here is anything to get excited about.

Hi Jeff, the small stamps indicates the Koshirae was made by Suya Shoten. The other markings could be related to the officers name or assembly numbers. The blade itself looks to have some age and could date back to the 16th Century.

You would need to post photos of the blade to help narrow down the school & period the sword is from. Otherwise you're basically trying to find an "A.Smith" in the phonebook with no other reference point.

That looks more like a Type 94.

A sword in the collection came with ersatz leather over a plain wood Saya, unfortunately it disintegrated during shipping with only the end cap remaining in one piece.

It was 8 million yen IIRC

Maybe a Hōju, sacred jewel.

As Rabaul wasn't taken by force the Japanese were more or less left to their own devices after the surrender, you sometimes see swords from Rabaul with quite detailed owners tags that list the officers name, detachment, and details of the sword itself.

If it was that tassel it really would've been a shame as that colour denotes General officer ranks.

Yellow tassels like this?

These were the other cards in the lot, they all appear to be similarly influential figures of the period:

Thank you again all, indeed Yamamoto Kiyoshi was at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This all relates to a naval sword surrendered to an Australian officer in the Dutch East Indies with a business card attached for Yamamoto Kiyoshi & his son Seiji. That card has an address for Shibuya Tokyo. So far I haven't been able to directly place Yamamoto Kiyoshi at Makassar or Balikpapan but my thoughts are he was a senior civilian employee of the Navy. The new card in question came up on yahoo auctions recently with other business cards from that period. Thank you all again for your assistance in this ongoing mystery.

Textbook oil tempered Hamon.

Patina is a bit off but with a tassel it will look fine.

I have the name (Yamamoto Kiyoshi) but the small handwritten note and details on the back are beyond my powers. Could a kind soul assist with these?