Bamboo Leaf pattern Tsuba on Gunto with old blade

[Baka Gaijin]

Good afternoon Gentlemen,

 

I wonder if you could help.

 

Over the years, I have seen a small number of Gunto, which have clearly been converted from an Ancestral Katana, to Rikugun use.

 

I have been told, candidly, by more than aa few Japanese Gentlemen, from that Hero generation, ( As both they and us view that dreadful era), that in some cases, local village Councils of Elders would "club together" to send one of their boys off to officer training with a sword , as their patriotic duty, even though, he , as a farme or local business man's son, could not afford to buy an approved Shin Gunto, as advertised in the papers of induction.

 

In the examples that I have encountered, from 1971 to present, usually, the Kurikata has been removed, and a makeshift Ashi had been added, the rest of the lacquered Saya being clad in a leather combat cover.

 

A makeshift hole for an Itomaki Sarute was drilled into the area just below the Kashira, and in some cases a Fusa Himo, still attached.

 

Quite a  few of these I encountered had a similar style of Mokko Tsuba depicting Bamboo leaves.

 

I am interested in the prevalence of the Bamboo Leaf Tsuba.

 

Can anyone shed some light upon this?

 

My take is that it was a single shop, supplying Regiments bound for the Burma Campaign.

 

Given that the items were from veterans in the United Kingdom, their field of operation from which they would have fought in or have been liberated from, was essentially, Burma down to Singapore. 

 

I believe that there is a wellspring of information out there, waiting to be tapped.

[vajo]

I think you mean such a tsuba with that fuchi kashira?

 

(edit i found the picture of my set 😂) the color is not correct under flashlight. Tsuba and FK + menuki looks golden.

 

 

Ohmura study koshirae..

[Baka Gaijin]

Good evening Chris, that is exactly the pattern I have in mind.

[vajo]

Ohmura declares the koshirae as civillian employee. The other two pattern was Sakura and a old tachi style tsuba. 

http://ohmura-study.net/728.html

 

[Baka Gaijin]

Chris, you have filled in some important gaps.

 

Thank you

[Bruce Pennington]

Malcolm,

 

The send-off story is quite amazing to hear, thanks for sharing that!  We all know that soldiers were sent off with various things like flags, and belts.  That's the first time I've heard of a village having a sword prepared. 

[Brian]

I'm watching this thread eagerly. Great info and extremely likely.

[IJASWORDS]

I have collected a few of these over the years, and think that they were also used interchangeably with the bamboo. It is no optical illusion, the one on the right is larger. That means at least two pieces of dies or molds. Still on the lookout for a matching F/K set.

[Baka Gaijin]

Good morning Gentlemen,

 

It sort of makes sense now, given the magnitude of the Burma Railroad, and the intentions to go into India, that there would have been a host of civilian employees seconded to the Army.

 

And, adding a little more to Bruce's post, I have heard that a number of the elder generation of Japanese Martial Arts Shihan, who were conscripted into the Rikugun, in the very latter days of the conflict, took ancestral blades to their induction and training camps.

 

This was not a matter of rank, as there were often no other weapons available.

 

I wondered about the choice of Bamboo as a subject matter, and was reminded of something the late Donn F Draeger wrote about a Yagyu Tsuba with a Bamboo leaf theme having a secret symbolism reminding the swordsman to recall the principle of Yawara (Pliancy), in respect of the Bamboo in winter bears a great amount of weight of snow, bending to an almost impossible angle and then shedding the snow, to return to standing in a swift springing action.

 

Of course the Tsuba we  are discussing bears no similarity to a Yagyu form, it is the concept behind it.

 

 

 

 

 

[Dave R]

 According to Mr Komiya' research in official documents  these are an early Showa era civilian pattern, Gunzoku were supposed to carry a standard Shin-Gunto with an all brown sword knot. This does not exclude them from being carried by Gunzoku though. There was a real sword shortage by 1942 and we quite often see civilian mounts adapted for military service. Swords were being bought up by the military in regular "drives" in order to fill the shortfall in official production.

 

 

 If you have a good search on this area of the forum you will see it covered in a lot more detail.

gunto call up 12-23-2017.pdf

[Baka Gaijin]

Thank You Dave.

 

[Mortis]

Here’s one that’s for sale in the U.S. Seems very similar to the variations being discussed.

 

 

 

[vajo]

 

Yes thats the Sakura pattern but the tsuba is false. I think the tsuka is from a civilian employee sword. 

Nice! Thanks for showing.

 

This is a plum (or is it cherry/ sakura?) pattern tsuba from a civillian koshirae i think. I saw a sword with purple ito and those Tsuba with fuchi kashire pattern (so i think it is plum motif). I belive this is silver plated. I search for the right FK to make a set.

 

[Bruce Pennington]

This should be cherry. It has the split at the end of each petal. Plum petals are round.

[vajo]

Here we had one civillian employee with the bamboo fuchi/kashira

 

A nice example.

[Bruce Pennington]

There's a nice one on @Benji's thread here:

 

[IJASWORDS]

These also occasionally show up on Showa period swords. 

[Bruce Pennington]

Another one on this Guns.ru thread.

 

[vajo]

I would really like to see an untouched bambo leaf pattern styled gunto. With that green ito or the plum type with the purple ito. Mostly they are not complete or in very bad condition.

[Itomagoi]

Hey Chris, like this tsuka? But it is the Sakura type.

[vajo]

Hi Peter, nice tsuka but the condition is like the most others not the best. Thanks for showing.

Did you have it?

[Itomagoi]

Yes, I buy it. :-)

[vajo]

This one is on Facebook. 

 

Military Swords of Imperial Japan (Shin Gunto) | Facebook

[Bruce Pennington]

Hmmm.....me thinks I see a pattern of green ito!  Interesting.

[Itomagoi]

In the Background you can see a rare type of the sakura tsuba. Line this one:

[Bruce Pennington]

I've found 3 of the sakura pattern tsuba with Kanezane blades in them.  I wonder if he had a direct contract with a shop that was selling these to Gunzoko.  Also note the Company grade tassel.  Too much water under the bridge..... don't remember if Nick Komiya stated the Gunzoku could use Army rank tassel, or if they were supposed to be using exclusively the all-brown.  Either way, this shows a Civil service, Gunzoku, sword with an Army tassel.  Seeing the personalization of gunto, that I have over the past couple years, it would not surprise me at all that a Company-grade equivalent Civil guy would put an Army tassel on his sword.  Of course this could be post-war, too.

 

[Bruce Pennington]

Ok, a new one - a 1943 Kanemitsu blade with a unique kiri engraving and LOOOONG inscription on the nakago mune that says "皇紀二千六百三年大東亜戦必勝祈願刀 – 2603 Imperial year (1943), a prayer sword for victory in the Greater East Asian War" thanks @Nobody!  And thanks @Okan who found the gunto.

[Bruno]

Neil, Bruce and others, have you ever seen a water quenched WW2 era blade mounted in civilian koshirae with one of these fittings?

 

I only saw showato.

[Bruce Pennington]

2 hours ago, Bruno said:

Neil, Bruce and others, have you ever seen a water quenched WW2 era blade mounted in civilian koshirae with one of these fittings?

 

I only saw showato.

I have not been noting the blades in these, so I don't have a feel for it.  Maybe one of the other guys might.  I'll try to watch that from now on.

[vajo]

Bamboo leaf themed civillian gunto.

Krystian sold it.

Blade is made by Kaneharu. 

First time to see that themed gunto in such a good condition. The blade looks very good preserved and the fittings are stunning. Only the saya doesn't look original.