Mister Gunto

Excellent document!!! "Psychologically, every non-purchased blade can lead to regret, and every purchased one can generate remorse. Every obscure piece of information leads one to believe there might be something great hidden there or on the contrary instills a great fear the blade is not what it appears to be." Dude, you cut open my skull and looked right into my brain with these words. Thanks for creating this.

Looks like a very clean blade as is. Once you get the tsuka off, post some pics. It may or may not be signed. That may also help you decide if you want to invest in a full polish or not.

Hi Edward, I don't find that smith listed in Slough's book, although it's not a comprehensive listing. If you go back to the store I'd look more closely at the area just to the upper right of the mekugi-ana hole. From the photo, it looks (possibly) like a Showa stamp has been scrubbed off. If so, it would definitely indicate that the blade was not traditionally made. From the bits of the blade I can see in the pic, it's probably a wartime showato blade. The mounts seem decent, but looks like a lot of staining on the blade itself. Depending on the size and condition of the blade, it might not be bad "basic wartime example" for your collection. I'd just keep your offer conservative, and don't spend too much on it. But if you really want a Gendaito in Gunto mounts, I'd keep looking.

The engravings are so deep, repetitive, and so close together, almost makes me wonder if this was originally a horimono engraver's "practice piece"? Definitely distinctive!

Direct hit! Ouch! Somebody went down hard.

Nice! I love that O-Kissaki!

Beautiful blade!

Definitely looks like Bubba got ahold of this one. Hopefully he left the blade alone.

For $95, it would only be worth it as a "Look at the weird things people do to Japanese swords" example for the collection. Honestly, better to save the bucks to add onto a chance for a better buy later. There are ALWAYS other swords out there.

Nice find!

That big red box one at the end...wow!

54. I've been into collecting militaria since I was a kid. Fascinated with Japanese blades ever since seeing the original "Shogun" series on TV back in the early 1980's. (Plus all the old WW2 documentaries I watched growing up) But I never considered getting into collecting actual Nihonto until about 7 years ago, when I picked up my first WW2-era Gendaito as part of an unexpected local buy. Nowadays, it's the primary focus of my collecting.

DOH! Ah, well, I'm usually a day late and a dollar short to these sorts of things. Still, it looks like an amazing museum! Another visit to add to my Japan list.

Ouch. The truth can be painful, but it's still the truth and deserves to be spoken. Perhaps best if you break it to him in a PM.

This popped up in my YouTube feed this morning. Thought I would share. Apparently, a recently opened Sword and Traditional Japanese Arms Museum in Nagoya. It's a fairly short video, about 10 minutes long, but some of the exhibits look very interesting.

Wow! Beautiful blade and koshirae!

It sounds like you'd be better off saving the money and instead start looking for a nice condition original WW2-era blade in it's original mounts. There's plenty of examples of what to look for here on the forums. They do turn up here on the For Sale subsection, and also over on eBay. Just be sure to do your research first and know what to look for.

Nice piece! Looks to be an early Shinto-era blade, probably from the 1600's. I have a Kanbun era one signed by Yoshiyuki, with similar low sori and a relatively short ubu nakago, also in Shin-Gunto koshirae. It's not uncommon to find the older swords mounted in WW2 Shin-Gunto koshirae that have old Tsubas fitted on them, instead of the typical brass Typ98 one.

Beautiful blade!

Yikes! Some people are REALLY proud of their stuff, I guess.

It's a beautiful blade. Love that nice sori.

Beautiful! Love that gold wrap.

Cool! I especially like the first example, with the cut-off mouth of a metal Type 98 mounted onto the lighter wooden Field Saya. That would allow the wearer to continue to use the latch button lock instead of needed to have a buttoned retaining strap put on. Nice set up.

Have to admit...that's some beautiful Dragon artwork!

Good catch! Looks like one of those counterfeits that were coming out of (I think) Poland, a couple years ago. Hopefully RIA will update the listing. A few years ago I sold off a few high condition milsurp rifles out of my collection. They were advertising as looking for consignments, so I emailed them. Got a reply from one of their reps, and at his request, sent him some photos and a description. He sounded interested...but then never got back to me. So I wound up selling them through GB, did well on the sales. 2 years later, I start getting phone calls from RIA, asking me if I still wanted to sell my collection. I told them what happened, and that they're no longer available. I still get a cold call about from them every six months...