John C

Hello: I would appreciate any help you all (y'all) could provide in identifying these uniforms. The star pips on the collars (as well as the pocket pens) could indicate cadets, however the different caps are throwing me off. I'm also having some difficulty identifying the shoulder boards. The cap badge on the first looks similar to a police badge but I could not find an exact match. Thank you, John C.

JC: Are these from the same sword or do you have two with assembly number 45? John C.

Mich: To add to what Bruce said, the ito wrap looks like it has had a fresh coat of lacquer applied. Still bright and shiny, not dull and dirty. Not saying it isn't legit, just some things to think about. John C.

Garbage in; garbage out. As long as Chatgbt continues to use the internet as its source, it cannot be accurate. If it had access to refereed journal articles written by professional researchers, that may change. But for now, I wouldn't trust it. In addition, the paragraphs in this case are far too simplistic, grammatically incorrect, and linguistically unsophisticated to be representative of a learned colleague providing advice. If one of my students had turned something like that in for an assignment, it would have kicked back for a re-write. John C. (Maybe I'm just being too hard on technology).

Adam: This sounds like a good reason to submit it. I would pick the two items I know the least about. Shinsa may be a good educational experience. John C.

Thank you, Trystan. This helps me piece together the origin of the album as a whole. John C.

Thank you, Steve. I didn't even think of checking for a proper name. John C.

This is a follow-up to the picture posted above. I have been able to scrape the top layer of tape off of the stamp on the left. I went through my glossary of military terms and could not find these exact characters. I believe the first kanji is platoon/shidai and the fourth character may be "police." I assume it is some sort of regimental approval stamp. Any additional help would be appreciated. Thank you, John C.

@Bruce Pennington Is that the same type of orange tassel found on the souvenir sword bags? John C.

Could that have to do with the seller? John C.

Dan: Bottom line is that the sword is in a bit of rough shape and not particularly valuable. But it is a valid piece of WW2 history and you should preserve it. Have some fun looking up the smith and finding out about the sword on NMB! John C.

It would be interesting to see if this Takeyasu is double stamped. John C.

I think the note says Takeyasu. I have seen that handwriting before, though I cannot remember where. Yes. A record for seppa in order to make it fit! John C.

Here's one listed for 49 dollars. https://www.ebay.com/itm/284750401368 John C.

Without the sword in hand, no one here can be 100 percent sure. But if the sword received valid NBTHK papers, then it is definitely a gendaito and not showato. Also, as Brian said, it is easy to tell the sword is hand-made and not machine made. In addition, we can also tell it has been water quenched, which is not typical of machine made swords. And lastly, the signature is very well done. Again, not something you would typically see on a showato. Hope this helps. John C.

Stegel: Are the initials on the whistle written in Cyrillic or is it just a stylized RK? John C.

From what I have seen, admittedly not much, is that boys day swords are not only shorter, but also thinner (skinnier) than adult swords. I believe in most cases they were ordered. John C.

With the exception of the hand embellished fuchi and kabutogane, and the wire sarute the other parts look legit to me. John C.

Looks as if the mon on the saya were once gilded as well. John C.

Thomas: Is there a list of known companies that supplied the military? We generally talk about 3 or 4 but there must have been more. John C.

Fittings are marked 700 and it has that file mark indicator on the mune as well. Nice example. John C.

Thank you kindly! You are the best! John C. (hours of research and I wasn't even close)

I don't know what their reasoning would be, though acid etching has been around for quite some time. We know that type 32 parade swords had their hamon acid etched. But as to a specific reason to do it on this one nakago, I have no clue. John C.

Hello: I gave it a shot but I'm sure I missed the mark. I marked the ones I got closest to. Thank you for all of your help. It is truly invaluable! John C.

With that area highlighted by the arrow void of paint and the width of the lines, it appears it may be an acid mark. Just a thought. Hard to tell from pics. Still don't know why there would be two, though. John C.