Kiipu

It is the katakana character ホ. It is thought that these markings are association or arsenal related. See this post by Bruce and my reply that follows. Arsenal Mark on RJT sword Fittings, Post #103 The blade is dated using the legendary founding of Japan in 660 BC. 皇紀二千六百三年五月日 = A day in May 1943. Below are the markings on the other side of the tang. 竹下宏國作之

Yes, 泰國 [Yasukuni] lived in the City of Hakodate, Hokkaidō [北海道]. His real name is 竹下･猛.

In IJASwords post #2 above, on the fourth picture down from the top, is that a ヘ inspection mark or just an indentation and/or scratch in the wood grip? I have marked the area with a red square in the picture below.

The 1997 F&G book, Japanese Military and Civil Swords and Dirks, mentions in the bibliography a Japanese language work entitled Teikoku Rikukaigun Guntō Monotagatari by Okochi, Tsunehira. This book is cited in footnote 17 on page 232, see below, and the reference can be found on page 218. Does anyone know anything about this book or has seen or owns a copy? I would like to acquire an image of the cover and/or title page for citation purposes. There was a Japanese author by the name of Okōchi Tsunehira 大河内･常平 (1925-1986) that did write articles and books about Japanese swords. However, I can find no titles that match the one mentioned in F&G. I would like to extend my thanks to @Bruce Pennington for his help in looking into this matter. As usual, he went above and beyond what would have been expected.

Your Pattern 8 sword was made by Jinsen Army Arsenal in 1945. It is more likely to have been obtained in Korea during the postwar occupation. The US Army stationed two divisions in Korea immediately after the war. The inspection mark that is referenced in post #3 will look like this ヘ. Below is a link to another Pattern 8 sword showing the various locations of the ヘ inspection mark. Questions about "late war", NCO swords

Thank you for posting the characters for his first name. I was having a hard time deciphering the first character in his given name and thought it could be 葚. Upon closer examination, it is indeed 甚. His full name is 井上･甚作 Inoue Jinsaku and his address in 1937 was 天田郡西中筋村石原八八 [Amata-gun Nishinakasuji-mura Ishihara 88]. He had two apprentices and could produce five swords per month.

I followed-up on this and there is no 國秀 Kunihide listed in 1937. He could have been an apprentice though during this time frame. Since I am here, I transcribed the characters and this is what I see. Do you concur? 伏見住高島國秀作 = Fushimi jū Takashima Kunihide saku

And another Japanese language monograph courtesy of @k morita. Adachi Kenzō 安立･健三. Nihon Seikōjo to Zuisen Tanto-Sho ni tsuite 日本製鋼所と瑞泉鍛刀所について [About The Japan Steel Works and Zuisen Sword Forge]. KK Nippon Seikōjo Muroran Seisakujo ㈱日本製鋼所室蘭製作所, 1974. 81 pages. Symbol Context, Post #16

Below is the transcription, reading from right to left, of the book cover shown in Post #16. Any comments or corrections welcomed. Column 1: 講演資料 = kōan shiryō = lecture materials. Column 2: 昭和四十九年九月十四日 = 1974-09-14. Column 3: 第十回刀苑合同研究会 = Dai-jū-kai tōen gōdō kenkyūkai = ??????????. Column 4: 室蘭全国大会 = Muroran zenkoku taikai = Muroran National Convention. Column 5: 日本製鋼所と瑞泉鍛刀所について = Nihon Seikōjo to Zuisen Tanto-Sho ni tsuite = About The Japan Steel Works and Zuisen Sword Forge. Column 6: ㈱日本製鋼所室蘭製作所 = KK Nihon Seikōjo Muroran Seisakujo = The Muroran Factory of Japan Steel Works Co., Ltd. Column 7: 総務部長代理　安立･健三 = Sōmu buchō dairi Adachi Kenzō = Deputy Chief of General Affairs Department Adachi Kenzō.

The whole clan can be seen at Tokyo Kindai Tosho Index, starting at V. Hanazawa Tanren Jo (羽沢鍛練場) and the Horii (堀井) Group.

Nobody, thank you for the additions. The kanji character 御 is rather interesting. It can be pronounced GO which is a honorific prefix or it can be pronounced GYO as an imperial honorary prefix. Do you think in this context it could be GYO?

Besides the above references, Guy (AKA ghp95134) over at War Relics Forum (WRF) has a pamphlet from the Japan Steel Works (JSW) that depicts all of the swordsmiths. He even shows an example of a business card which I found rather interesting. It is worthy of a look if you are so inclined. The Emperor’s New Clothes, Post #37

In regards to the first two characters 延宝 , the spelling given by Nelson is Empō, which is the phonetic spelling, while Wikipedia uses Enpō, which is the same spelling that Steve uses above. So in answer to your question as to what it would sound like, then I would go with Nelson. However, it should be properly spelled as Enpō. For an explanation as to why this is, take a look at the link below. N (kana)

A couple more Japanese language books for the bibliography. Thanks to @lucidorise, @mecox, and Guy (ghp95134) over at WRF for the additions. Jingū chōkokan nōgyō-kan 神宮徴古館農業館 [Jingū History & Agricultural Museums]. Gendaigatana no hyaku-nen: Fukkō to keishō 現代刀の100年: 復興と継承 [One Hundred Years of Modern Swords: Revival and Succession]. Ise 伊勢: Jingūchōkokan nōgyō-kan 神宮徴古館農業館, 2010. 71 pages. Show Us Your High Class Gunto, Post #466 Horii Tanetsugu 堀井･胤次. Enishi: Katanakaji Horii-ke hyakugojū-nen no rekishi えにし: 刀鍛冶堀井家百五十年の歴史 [Enishi: The 150 Year History of the Horii Family of Swordsmiths]. Muroran 室蘭: Horii Tanetsugu 堀井胤次, 1996. NLF Gunto Discussion, Post #32

To get the ball rolling, there are four rows of kanji characters on the back. The second row is repeated on the front which also has the police emblem at the top and firefighting emblem at the bottom. This is what I have trancribed so far. 1st row: 梨本総裁宮殿下 = Nashimoto sōsai kyūden-ka. 2nd row: 御檢閲記念 = O ken'etsu kinen. 3rd row: 昭和十二年四月十一日 = 1937-04-11. 4th row: 岡山縣 = Okayama-ken. As for what the characters are referring to, I will leave that to someone else. However, I think the reference to Nashimoto could be to 梨本宮守正王.

Just when Bruce thought it was safe to rest on his laurels. Symbol Context

Morita san, thank you for the picture of the front cover of the book. While looking into the Horii line, I ran across another source of information that may be of interest to you. It is an article entitled 瑞泉鍛刀所百年の歩み and it can be downloaded over at the Japan Steel Works webpage. https://www.jsw.co.jp/ja/product/technology.html For those that rather not navigate through a Japanese language webpage, below is a direct link to the PDF article. 瑞泉鍛刀所百年の歩み 100 Years of the Zuisen Japanese Sword Smithy

Thank you ronnie for the picture of the book cover. I was able to locate the required information over at the National Diet Library. It is a a small book of only 71 pages that was published in 2010. The characters 継承 can be translated as succession, accession, or inheritance. Jingū chōkokan nōgyō-kan 神宮徴古館農業館 [Jingū History & Agricultural Museums]. Gendaigatana no hyaku-nen: Fukkō to keishō 現代刀の100年: 復興と継承 [One Hundred Years of Modern Swords: Revival and Succession]. Ise 伊勢: Jingū chōkokan nōgyō-kan 神宮徴古館農業館, 2010.

Below are the monographs that have come out in the first six months of 2021 by Cox & Co., Ltd. If you are a member of the Nihonto Message Board (NMB), these monographs can be found by clicking the "Downloads" tab at the top of the webpage. When the page opens, on the right hand side of the screen, click on "Member Articles". Cox, Malcolm E. Seki Swordsmiths and Japanese Naval Swords. 2021. 89 pages. Superseded shortly after by Japanese Naval Swords, Parts 1 and 2. Cox, Malcolm E. Japanese Naval Swords, WW 2: Swordsmiths & Workshops. Part 1. 2021. 106 pages. Cox, Malcolm E. Japanese Naval Swords: Swordsmiths & Workshops. Part 2. 2021. 104 pages. Cox, Malcolm, and Sueko Cox. Tokushima Swordsmiths 徳島刀匠: Showa Period and the Kaifu-to Background. 2021. 112 pages.

This can be a problem as to how to relocate a downloaded picture. I have tried searching for images using the original file name but have never been able to relocate a picture this way. Another way of locating a picture I learned from "Dave R" was to simply drag & drop the image into Google Image search. This feature was added in 2011 and it has identified a couple of pictures that I did not have source information for. Go to https://images.google.com/ and click on the image of the camera to the left of the magnifying glass icon. From the popup, click on "Upload an image" and then drag and drop the image into the search box. And finally, this is how I handle the situation of relocating a picture. I add a suffix to the picture file name denoting the forum, user's name, and date. It would look something like this: nmb-brucepennington-20210719. For example, if I need to go back to that post, I can hover my mouse over your name in the post above and then click "Find Content". From there, I just click through the various pages until I come to the date of your post. It can be time consuming at times but it has always worked for me. Practice makes perfect and below is an example of a picture that I saved from this forum. Now see how long it takes to relocate the source of the picture without cheating! [The new NMB forum system will add an additional alpha-numeric string after the original file name, in this case 4c0138e8e6f3e3c0d8445fcbc853c0e7, as one can see in the example below.] If by chance someone has a better way, I am open to any and all suggestions.

I found them too but my record keeping is better than yours. IJA officers factory made sword?

Ditto! I am glad that I am not the only one that made this mistake. Rikugun Jumei Tosho (RJT) Star Stamped Blades - Documentation?, Post #26 I think my mistake prompted Nick to expand on the whole matter as seen in post #31. Rikugun Jumei Tosho (RJT) Star Stamped Blades - Documentation?, Post #31

Is this the one your looking for? E Swordsmiths of Japan

Bryce, just a quick note to let you know that there is a 40 year company history about Nihon Satetsu Kōgyō KK entitled 日本砂鐵鋼業40年史. You can cut and past the title over at the NDL and get all the details about the book.

The characters on the obverse side of the tang are as follows. 皇紀二千六百年 = 1940. 月山貞勝謹作 = Gassan Sadakatsu kinsaku. At the very bottom is Gassan Sadakatsu's signature [花押 = kaō].