Conway S

It’s dated 二千六百二年 - 1942.

The characters in the mei are incorrect for Horii Toshihide. A possible Showa smith using this mei is Toshihide (敏秀), real name Asai Kazue. Here is the excerpt from Markus Sesko’s Swordsmiths of Japan: TOSHIHIDE (敏秀), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Gifu – “Toshihide” (敏秀), real name Asai Kazue (浅井一衛), born October 18th 1916, son of Toshimasa (敏正), he worked as guntō smith and died November 5th 1952

@Scogg I thought you were maybe talking about this other casting flaw which Stegel points out in this Warrelics thread: Japanese nco nagoya sword

Are you referring to what looks like a glop in the casting? Here is an example in the 202,000 serial range: WWII Japanese NCO OFFICERS SWORD SIDE LATCH & MATCHING NUMBERS ON SCABBARD #Y59

Already posted here:

I was just referencing what’s posted above. Maybe a mistake in your chart if you don’t have a picture recorded.

I’m in the same boat with you. I know some people here feel a gunto is incomplete without the tassel or knot, but I try to avoid purchasing these unless I find them in-person. It's hard to shop for tassels by pictures alone.

Ah you’re right! The top stroke would be shorter than the bottom if it was a two. Good catch. Looks like there are consecutive numbers recorded now (セ1143 and 1144).

@Bruce Pennington Here’s another Spring 1944: セ 一一四三 that’s not listed in your table. Maybe you haven’t seen this one yet sold Here

The mei looks like it was done with an electric engraving tool. Just look at how many small strokes there are in each character. I believe whoever made this was trying to pass this work off as one by a well known Edo period smith - Kunikiyo.

Here’s another example. Spring 1944 with ren stamp 連 and serial セ se 一四一三： It’s in overall excellent condition.

35” is quite long for a non-dress blade in kyu gunto mounts. Looks to be in nice condition too. A good find!

@Nobody Thank you very much, Moriyama san.

Greetings, I picked up a sword with a return tag and I am having a little trouble with the full translation. The characters are carved into the leather. So far, I’ve got 堀内吾郎, as a name- Horiuchi Goro on the far left hand column with the bottom 所有 (property). I can also tell that right hand column is referencing a city/capital. Second column from right - 4th district, 16th house. Any help with the right hand column and correct pronunciation of the owner’s name would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Con

Hi Frank, This smith is Akiyoshi. This sword was posted on NMB previously:

Well I'm glad I stumbled across that eBay listing. I learned something new and It’s cool to uncover details about these more obscure smiths.

I’m quite confident the stamp is on the same sword. I have a Shigenaga in my collection, and the seller mentions the stamp in the description. I saw your Amahide in another thread. It looks quite nice and it’s cool that your father brought it home.

@John C In the article linked above, Mal Cox writes that there were 16 smiths listed as part of the Seki Nihonto Tanren Jo in 1942. Only three of those being well recorded.

Thanks for the second opinion, John. Since this was only the third time I have seen this stamped mei, I was skeptical seeing this one coming from Komonjo. I also found this example of another stamped mei - 金丸（Kanemura) on an Amahide : Maybe these are some of the other smiths working from Amahide’s workshop.

Something about the mei is off. The characters are poorly executed, even for a showato. The chiseling looks smooth as opposed to chippy. But then again, the patination on the nakago appears natural.

Greetings, Found this example over the weekend coming from Komonjo’s workshop. Unfortunately some unscrupulous individual has added an Amahide mei to presumably increase bids for a well-known smith. This is the third example of a Shigenaga stamped mei I have come across. His name does not appear in Sesko’s Swordsmiths of Japan or other lists I have searched. Has anyone discovered any other details on this smith? From the examples I have seen, there is a nice hada present. I would say it resembles ayasugi hada, but that’s just my novice opinion. Japanese Sword: IJA WW-II Amahide Imperial Army Gunto Con

Paul, I agree that it’s a police sword. Normally these would have a police badge insignia on the backstrap of the handle. This particular one does not. There are many variations of these found, some with mounted traditionally made Japanese blades. More frequently, these have mass-produced Meiji-Showa period non-traditionally made blades. Based on the pictures in your eBay listing, the blade is in rough shape. I think you should look at sold prices online on eBay and elsewhere. In my opinion, your current listing price is too much. Con

Thomas, I think I found the answer I was looking for...Mr. Komiya writes of Army Ordnance 5668: Thanks for sharing. I know Bruce has posted a list of links to Mr. Komiya’s articles, but it sure would be useful if the full posts could be compiled in a single PDF. That would be a worthwhile endeavor for someone to undertake.

I am just curious if officers bought the Type 100s direct from the arsenal. If purchased from the arsenal, I would think more standardization and few options for customization - for example, the lack of family mon, similar lacquered ito, and little variation in scabbard color. I’ve seen the inspection marks on Type 100 fittings too. I have an example of a showato made by Katsuteru in 1945 with a Gifu stamp.