Polaria

This doesn't look right at all. Just one look at the blade should tell you all you need to know about it.

Nice looking sword. Five mekugi-ana is pretty rare. I wonder how many times the blade has been remounted.

I would call 6 definitely, just by how the links look and 2 by how the color is different. Also in at least one of the photos both 2 and 6 look a shade too bright.

I think the situation as it stand now is purely a question of time. Showato were produced for the war in huge numbers and it wasn't THAT long ago. As long as there is plenty to go around and with fakes flooding the market it is easy to dismiss them categorically. The fact that you CAN get a non-traditional gunto papered is a good indication that times will change and someday these last examples of Japanese sword made for actual combat will get the recognition they deserve.

It looks like a sageo and probably tied like that on purpose, but it isn't too long to be from a tassel.

This all-brown "remains of a tassel" came with a type 98 sword tied to the saya as shown.

This one also came with the sword and yet again the loop end was cut. This one was attached as shown and I've never removed it from the sword. However it is much too good looking compared to the sword so I assume it might not be original to the sword, or at least not the one with which it came from the factory.

This gunto tassel came with a sword that has very good provenance and considering how everything was I think it is original to the sword. It came with the loop cut and frayed attached as shown in the picture. I did take it off and retied it once at which point it started to come apart and I lost maybe a quarter of an inch / half centimeter from the frayed part.

My notes: Koshirae doesn't look right at all, even for late war production. Tsuba is decorated, but the decorations are wrong in style and subject. Saya fittings do not look right at all. The wood hilt has wrong cross hatching. I cannot say about the blade and there are better experts for that here, but nothing in the koshirae looks genuine.

I agree. Everyone has their own priorities and interests. I know a lot of people who dismiss all Japanese military swords as "trash". I, on the other hand, am very interested in them because they are the last military swords intended to be used in battle in the era of modern mechanized war. Which alone makes them very interesting in the history of swords and other bladed weapons. These "official souvenirs" seem to be actually commissioned by 8th Army very soon after the war and thus have their own very interesting tale in the big picture.

This must have been a huge work. I am so glad you decided to share it with us. Very much thank you.

Of course it is a souvenir. It says so on the certificate.

At least he started with "things I don't collect and know nothing about" so any factual mistakes can be forgiven. But, they said there were more navy officer swords produced during WWII than army officer swords... Do we have any numbers on this or was it just guesswork?

My notes: Looks like shin gunto koshirae Saya is non-standard for shin gunto Fuchi is non-standard and looks cheap Black same and black paint on mekugi head look suspect Tsuka ito looks off Without seeing the tsuba, seppa and kabuto-gane in detail it's hard to say, but my guess is that this might be pieced together from authentic and after-war parts. Have you disassembled the sword yet?

How long is the nakago?

I am surpriced that there are stamped wakizashis, even though the number seems to be small. Then again many type 98's have unstamped blades so maybe there are a couple of similarly made unstamped wakizashis in gunto mounts somewhere.

Has anyone ever found a wakizashi blade with arsenal stamps or military inspection stamps of any kind? Because I have the feeling that the full size blade was the military standard for all gunto and wakizashi blades in gunto koshirae are privately sourced custom weapons.

Exceptional find. And with a mon, too.

This sword has been on and off my table for quite awhile now. From what I've gathered so far: Saya is probably a total fake. Details in the shibabiki and ishizuke are messy and do not look sharp enough to be genuine. Sam with kuchi-gane which also looks like attached with a wrong type of screw. Ashi is cast from one piece of metal so it doesn't fit any known type of genuine fitting. Saya tube is unpainted and the slot where to lock attaches looks unfinished. Tsuka is probably genuine. Kabuto-gane, menudo and fuchi look like they should with crisp detail fitting the known types. The wood, same and tsuka-ito are clearly old and belong together. Tsuka-ito is well done and both worn and tight enough to be original. Seppa is almost certain to be genuine. I don't know about the tsuba. Some of the details look really messy but it is a very good fit with the seppa. The blade is a mystery. It is in rough shape but the short nakago and two sets of mekugi-ana do not make any sense in a fake blade. The tsuka is made to fit a longer nakago, but the mekugi-ana in the blade and tsuka match like they should. Habaki might not be original and looks really rough. The blade is (re?)sharpened in western saber fashion bit clear bevel. There is more discussion on the blade and mei in another thread: My current best guess is that the blade might be originally made for kyu-gunto, cavalry sword, police sword or similar sword with western saber style grip. Somewhere along the line the blade was fitted with a stock shin-gunto koshirae tsuka. Original saya and possibly habaki and maybe even the tsuba was lost. The blade and surviving pieces where put together with fake stuff in effort to make a complete sword. Would this make sense?

The blade looks like it has been resharpened with a new bevel which would have removed quite a bit of material from the edge and thus changing the shape. I don't know what to think about the habaki. It looks like the blade has cut into the habaki which makes me think it was not original or someone has tried to reshape it with a hammer and not quite succeeded.

Like I said, I don't have the eye for that sort of things. Now that you mention it, I can notice it straight away, but here I was looking at the sword, thinking if there was something wrong with it. :D

The koshirae will be modern built in any case, so it doesn't really matter if it looks "period" or not. Even if the pieces are old they are still not original to that sword. I would go with what looks best for the blade and how YOU want to present the blade in this time.

I don't have the eye to pick things out of Pawn Stars so can someone enlighten me what went wrong there?

It would help to see if the saya was push fit or latch fit. Maybe the original had two koshirae but extra parts were lost at some point? I have a type 98 which came with two tsuba, one shin-gunto and one civilian.

...and a few more.