Cut Up Post War Swords?

[Peter Bleed]

A friend and I are working up a paper on the small collection of “tanto” that his father bought as a teenage GI in Japan in 1947. These blades were made of the tips of swords that were roughly cut and then remounted with sayas that were similarly bobbed off.  The kodogu are all right, but both the blades and the koshirae are gracelessly stubby. The nakago are – well – very sorry and obviously mumei. Interestingly a couple of the “tanto” have origami with specific attribution.

I assume that these pieces are leftovers of swords that were “destroyed” in the post-War years. They may not be “collectible”, but I think they deserve to be described as a part of ‘sword history.’

My question to the Board is if there any literature on when, where, and on whose authority swords in Japan were being cut up in Post-War Japan. We have all heard the stories of swords thrown in the Ocean, but who was cutting up swords?

Peter

[Fuuten]

If i'm not mistaken, it has to do with the registration of swords, some swords that were found without registration were cut into 1 shaco pieces iirc.

[lonely panet]

if you have Japanese SWORD SURRENDER TAGS by R FULLER, there is some brief info and pics showing swords being destroyed after the war. I think Mitsubishi company had the contract to destroy them

 

regards Hamish

[Peter Bleed]

Thank you Hamish and Axel. I will have to check Fuller's Surrender Tag volume. In fact, it really seems that right after the War, treatment of swords was highly variable. Certainly lots of weaponry was being destroyed but it is certain that cutting up blades didn't happen everywhere. In fact, I have to wonder if Col. Cadwell's policy statement could really have been presented to standardize treatment of swords. Whenever the post-War treatment of swords comes up, I also have to wonder about who was actually doing the work and handling the swords. Japanese officials had to have been involved and "sword experts" may have helped.

Peter