Mister Gunto

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...

That Bo-Hi is a dead giveaway. Definitely not Japanese make.

Congrats on a great first purchase! You did better than I did with my first.

Nice find, and now it'll always have a cool story to go with it.

Bubba Strikes Again. *sighs*

Closer shot...

I had originally thought the black overpaint on the Kyu was also period, maybe to cover the chromed scabbard for field use? But the scabbard ring was on upside-down when I got it. I took it off and flipped it, and you can see where the shiny metal is underneath. So, perhaps an old postwar repaint by some vet or earlier collector?

I think the Type 99 paint is original, possibly done when the blade was arsenal refurbished.

Here are my two with black painted sayas. First is a Type 99 Otsu, matching numbers on blade and scabbard. (Ignore the repro strap, just had to put it somewhere) Second is Kyu-Gunto with what's probably a koto ( muromachi) shortened Nihonto blade. Trying to upload from my phone, so please bear with me...

Looks like a really fantastic collection!

Fantastic pics! Love the Japanese light tanks.

Yikes! Makes me wonder if it's a wartime Showato with the Showa date and 2-Mei signature removed. As well as the end of the nakago ground away, and a fake "semi mekugi-ana hole" added to make it look as if it's a suriage older blade.

Beautiful blade! You can tell it's got some heft to it.