Mister Gunto

Very sorry Robert. I've lost my share of amazing pets over the years. It always hurts to lose them.

Really sorry for your loss. Lets hope someone here can spot it if it turns up on eBay or the like. Most postal employees take their job very seriously, but like any big organization, there are thieves and bad apples in the mix. Also, at this time of year they hire a lot of temporary employees to help out with the extra holiday parcel volume. They hire those guys pretty quickly, and don't do much in the way of background checks like they do for regular employees. I don't know about Europe, but here in the USA we always see an uptick in mail thefts, internal and external, at this time.

It could be that the sword was originally made in 1935 and sold to an officer or a private citizen as usual. However, at some point much later in the war the owner, or his surviving family, sold or donated it to the the Imperial Government for the war effort. The sword was then refitted at the Kokura arsenal in the late war mounts. The arsenal would almost certainly have marked the blade there for inventory / processing purposes.

Yikes! Especially if they're using genuine fittings. It's not too hard to artifically rust a nakago. Add a little "honest wear" to the blade, a few small spots of light rust, a couple tiny nicks, voila! Ebay's latest scam swords...

Great photos, and great idea on the reference photo albums!

Naginata type blades always seem to draw higher prices (at least the the auctions I've seen). They're less commonly encountered, and definately have a "cool" factor to them. So its not surprising that people are willing to take a chance to score one at a lower price point.

Very impressive and cool book, Neil! Surprised the museum hasn't responded. Hopefully your email will make it to the right person there.

Nice blade, and a nice find! A Type 95 NCO sword was my first true Japanese made sword. Careful, they're addicitve!

That is VERY cool!

Beautiful, and a nice bo-hi on this one. Do you have any photos of the nakago?

A few pics of my Ko for comparison as well...

Adam, I love the TV in the fireplace...with the virtual fire burning! Ha! I currently don't have the space to display...in an apartment with roomates. Also, always worried about theft. I keep mine locked up in the gun cabinet.

The Doctor had a very nice sword! Very cool!

It's really cool when a sword can be placed to a specific veteran, recovered from a specific battle. Lots of good detail, thanks for posting!

Thanks Klaus! I'm actually already in contact with him now.

Good to know! I find myself in need of one of these now as well. I'll send an email to Mark.

The fittings look legit. But that nakago....could it be a showato arsenal sword that had the nakago ground down to fit the habaki and tusga, instead of them being fitted to the nakago? I've seen a few examples like that, wartime production rush work.

Just signed up. Was very simple and easy. Honestly, I rarely donate to sites. But I have to say that I've learned a LOT here on NMB. It's really been an invaluable resource. Especially for those like me who are fairly new to Nihonto and Japanese Military swords of all types. And frankly it's saved me plenty in avoiding some bad purchases that otherwise would've been made out of ignorance. As for a name, Gold is fine. (I like the little ryo image a lot). But if you really want to change it, maybe "Daimyo"?

I'm fine with it.

Beautiful blade!

I'll bet a .30-06 bullet will fit that hole perfectly

I'll have to leave the details to others more knowlegdable than I. Cool blade though, definately an older one. I like it. Even cooler with the veteran's old box.

That is a really cool find.

Sometimes things collected with interest during wartime end up holding unexpected bad memories for the former soldiers. I remember, once I left the Army after the 1st Gulf War, there was a period of a couple years where I didn't even want to look at my old uniforms, medals, gear, etc. Just boxed them up and ignored them. Threw some of it out. And it was a long time before I could once again enjoy shooting any of the guns in my collection. So I can imagine someone being excited to bring home a Shin-Gunto, show it off for a bit to the folks at home, only to put it away soon after. Then comes a new life, a family, kids, work, and an overall desire to forget what they saw in the Pacific. Except for other veterans, who would really understand what they saw, and went through? By that time, the sword might just remind them of long dead friends and bad events. So it got tucked away in a closet, or the attic, and more or less forgotten for years. For those of us into Nihonto and WW2 Japanese military swords, it seems awful to treat such blades so casually. But for the soliders who went through the war? I can understand the love/hate feelings they may have harbored for their "souvieners"...

Just my 2 cents... A Koto Suriage (or O-suriage), now Mumei blade: 1) Hey, it's affordable now 2) Even after losing the smith's signature, the blade was still of high enough quality that the various Japanese owners (Samurai) felt it was worth the using and keeping through the constant warfare of the Muromachi, and later, the centuries of (relative) peace of the Edo period; 3) Being Mumei, now the work has to stand for itself. How does it look to you? How does it feel in your hand? The fact that it's still around, cut down and re-used over the centuries, means someone saw something in it worth the keeping.