Yukihiro

A beautiful kai-gunto, that would surely deserve some closer shots. Thanks for sharing! Didier

Yes, but the sad thing is that someone bought it (literally and figuratively!) for close to $900 or more!

A beautiful blade with a great historical background - congratulations, John!

The seller had stipulated a minimum bid of 850€ ($878!) for that sword, which made it somewhat more valuable in the eyes of the present highest bidder, who is willing to pay that kind of money (and maybe much more!) for such a piece of cheap Chinese crap

This 'sword' is definitely sold as a traditionally made blade with a hada and a 'beautiful' hamon. The seller calls it a Japanese (sorry: Japannese!) Navy sword, not a Chinese copy, which is highly misleading and dishonest.

Well, the fact is that there have been bids on that thing, and that it is now worth a staggering 810€!

That is assuredly a good way of making your genuinely authentic gunto much more valuable!

Here is something you won't see every day: enjoy! https://www.naturabu...2-item-12989895.html By the way, the seller can't even spell 'japonais' correctly...

I don't understand why the seppa is pierced (and probably the tsuba, too) if there is no tsuka latch - isn't there a possibility this is a put together koshirae?

That's right.

That is indeed a beautiful collection, but they're all gendaito, aren't they? My Masatsugu gunto/gendaito reached the polisher yesterday - he phoned me because he was surprised by the shape of the sword and immediately realised it was not a mere gunto, hence my assumption that there is some kind of typical gunto shape as opposed to more traditional blades.

Thank you very much for all your input The reason why I asked in the first place was because Leon and Hiroko Kapp & Leo Monson mention 'a typical army or gunto shape' in their book (Modern Japanese Swords: The Beginning of the Gendaito Era), so my assumption was there must have been some kind of standard shape for gunto blades.

As I looked at two of my gunto side by side, I noticed that the one that is supposed to be a gendaito has a somewhat stouter and shorter blade with a deeper sori whereas the Seki-stamped gunto is not as thick and has a straighter blade - do you know whether there was a standard gunto shape as opposed to less conventional blades? The Masatsugu sword is on its way to the polisher's at the moment, so it will be months before I see it again. Hopefully the polish will live up to my expectations!

Yes, Jean, this is what I had thought: try as I may, I couldn't get the kanji to match - they're a different hand altogether.