Yasukuni shirasaya

[David McDonald]

Dear All

 

I am working at translating on the shirasaya of a blade signed Yasunori 靖憲

and the blade is dated Showa ju ni nen san gatsu kichi hi 昭和十二年三月吉日

 

On the shirasaya there is 贈呈　Zōtei (presentation)

 

And then 帝國在郷軍入会久留米市聯合分会

 

Teikoku zaikyō gun nyūkai kurume shi rengō bunkai

Maybe???

The sword was presented by the imperial republic forces admission to Kurume (久留米) city union chapter.

Any thoughts, comments or corrections.

 

Later

david

[SteveM]

帝國在郷軍人会久留米市聯合分会

 

One slight error - the kanji in red is 人, not 入.

 

ていこくざいごうぐんじんかい

Imperial Army Reservist's Association, Kurume Chapter/Branch

 

Also, 吉日 is read as kichijitsu

[David McDonald]

Dear Steve

 

Thanks for the information.

 

david

  On 4/17/2019 at 4:02 AM, SteveM said:

帝國在郷軍人会久留米市聯合分会

 

One slight error - the kanji in red is 人, not 入.

 

ていこくざいごうぐんじんかい

Imperial Army Reservist's Association, Kurume Chapter/Branch

 

Also, 吉日 is read as kichijitsu

[David McDonald]

Dear All

 

Reading about the Yasukuni-to I find that Onkashi-to blades were made.  These were blades made as gifts (presentations) from the emperor and given to the top graduates of the Army and Navy Military academies.  Normal Yasukuni shrine blade were signed with two charactors above the mekugi-ana the Onkashi-to blades were signed below the mekugi-ana and with two extra charactors - kin saku – added.  These blades were tested and passed with high marks.

 

Would this blade given as a presentation blade be of this quality?

 

Thanks for your thoughts

 

later

david

[Blazeaglory]

Cool. So this Nihonto was probably given to the reservists as a whole and would sit in an area of that local headquarters for others to view maybe? Until, well, 1945 of course.

 

Pretty amazing