Officer's Katana Identification.

[8 Ball]

Hello fellow forum members!

I have recently joined this forum and am excited to speak to fellow enthusiasts, and to receive some help on topics.

To cut right to the chase, I need some help identifying a sword I have acquired from someone locally. It is clearly a WW2 era sword, but I have some questions about the mounts and the blade. I'll be trying to upload some pictures later, but for now I'll do my best to describe it.

First of all, the blade is not mounted in NCO or conventional Gunto mounts. The Kashira is not the nearly iconic gunto pommel that you all can visualize (you know, the ones that have the little loops for the tassels and where the same goes underneath the kashira). The Fuchi and Kashira seem to resemble more civilian looking mounts that appear to be made of an iron. The Kashira is squared off on the end like most non-military Katana (somewhat resembling an 'end of war' pommel but doesn't seem to be bad quality at all) and has a very nice Ura end knot, but no little loop for the tassel. The Tsuka is very well wrapped in brown silk Ito, and (surprisingly to me) has little Hishigami triangles tucked under each of the creases. The Samegawa almost looks like Snake skin, the scales/granules are VERY small, which I can only assume means low quality. But, another thing that intrigues me about the tsuka is that it doesn't have the typical gunto menuki tucked under the Ito. The Menuki appear to be the same material as the Fuchi and Kashira and looks very high quality. The menuki doesn't resemble the typical flowers a normal gunto would, but appears to be either an animal or a person (my best bet being a monkey, but I wouldn't put money on it). The Tsuba is another thing that I find is VERY different from other Gunto. Firstly, the tsuba is round and flat, and is NOT the typical imperial army tsuba that are more square shaped. It is round and the metal is yellowish (my best bet being that it is made of brass) and has only one Kozuka-ana. It has no major holes other than the kozuka and the ana for the blade, and is relatively thick. The metal is pleated (has a rougher texture, with little uniform bumps) and has what appear to be two little ring designs on each side. I have not been able to find another tsuba like this, so this is a quite intriguing find for me. The Saya is really the most typical thing about the sword. It is painted black and has two ring-mounts, but is in pretty bad shape and has a crack running down the front.

The tang has one mekugi-hole that appears to be punched, not drilled, and DOES have 4 red-painted numbers:(from top to bottom) 2509. Other than that there are NO STAMPS or signatures and it has a relatively dark rust patina. The blade has no bo-hi and has a few tiny dark rust patches along the surface. The blade does have a hamon, which I can best describe as Sanbonsugi or Choji Gunome. The blade is in need of a polish and I can barely see the hamon in the shape it's in, so I can't really see any visible Nie. Normally I'd coin this as just oil-quenched, but there's two reasons I might think it could be something more. Firstly, I've used the good-ol' printer paperprinter cut test, and have tested the entire length of the blade to see that it is sharp even down to the Habaki. Cuts better than most repro blades I have. Also, even though the hamon is harder to see, I can clearly see it runs underneath the habaki and right down to the tang, and runs evenly and clearly through the Kissaki straight to the tip. It's fairly inactive, but changes between very close little 'spikes' to even undulating waves near the bottom of the habaki and through the kissaki. I have been able to catch the light on it (not sure how to put this) and 'light up' the hamon to see it has a different kind of shine than the rest of the blade (Sorry, I'm being really vague here, I'm not quite an expert). Any help is appreciated and I'll try to get pictures up ASAP. Thanks!

[mdiddy]

Hello and welcome to the forum. Based on what you describe it does not sound like a military sword but rather a samurai mounted sword. It could be a Showa period sword in low end mountings for civilian use or it could be a much older sword, possibly mounted and carried when samurai held influence.

 

Pictures are worth a thousand words, or roughly half you post! :D

[8 Ball]

Thank you very much for the reply. Yes I do hope it's more than a cheap oil quenched gunto. I just wonder what the paint on the tang means. I thought they only painted those on production swords?

 

 

I'll do my best to upload some pictures. Do you have any advice as to the easiest way TO upload pictures? I'm kind of a newbie and appreciate all the help I can get

[8 Ball]

Alright, here are some pictures. Sorry if they're bad quality, I tried to get the best photos I could.

[Dr Fox]

Sorry I don't know how to address you, as you have not signed with your name, as per board rules.

 

I have to say the photos you have posted are too grainy to give any details what so ever. May I now point you to look at previous posts, as to how to get a half decent image, so the help here can be maximised.

 

Also there is wealth of recent information, as to how and what to capture of your sword with a camera.

 

Dont rush, but it will benefit and offer the best info, to answer your enquiries. Cheers.

[8 Ball]

Thank you for the input.

 

I have promptly changed my signature to 'Max J.'; you can address me as Max

 

I have also resolved to try a better camera when I try to upload pictures. I just used my Ipod camera on those pictures, and now realize that I'll need to use my Nikon.

 

Thanks!