Murata Swords 村田刀

[Kiipu]

Obverse

宇都宮中尉 = Utsunomiya chūi = Lieutenant Utsunomiya.

明治廿四年八月 = August 1891.

Inventory/Issue No. 4/59.

 

Reverse

小銃兼正 Shōjū Kanemasa = Rifle Kanemasa.

The second column seems to start with a variant of 赠 or 贈 which means "gift."

？木内？羽日士官

@BANGBANGSAN & @SteveM

[SteveM]

贈　木内見習士官　To Officer Trainee Kiuchi

[Bruce Pennington]

15 hours ago, Kiipu said:

廿

Thanks Thomas, you've probably explained this to me several times over the years!

 

And now we have another one of those out-of-sequence anomalies.  The sequencing seems to start over with each year:

1889 Kanemasa 5 95

1889 Kanemasa 7 17

 

1890 Kanemasa 3 10

 

1891, Mar  "        5 169

1891, Jun  "         5 178

1891, Aug  "        4 59

1891, Aug  "        6 173

 

1892, Nov  "       1 220

 

1893, Dec  "       5 331

 

[Kiipu]

A Murata cane sword with the number of 5/237 can be seen at the link below.

明治廿六年十月一日 = 1893-10-01.

村田刀 兼正 = Murata Sword Kanemasa.

Muratato Kogarsu-maru style sword

[Bruce Pennington]

Guy, over at this Wehrmacht-wards thread, did a great translation of the Ohmura page on Murata Tsuneyoshi.  There were 2 things I learned that I had never caught before:

 

"Baron Murata Tsuneyoshi, a major general in the army, was an expert marksman. He developed the famous "Murata gun." Afterwards, he wanted to improve military swords, so he made a prototype military sword out of saber steel (sword steel from Solingen, Germany) in stock at the Tokyo Artillery Arsenal.

Because it cut very well, under the guidance of Miyamoto Kanenori and Yokoyama Sukekane, he cut the Swedish steel and Japanese steel into strips in a ratio of 6:4, melted them at 1,500℃, and forged them into a round shape and hardened in oil to complete the blade.

In October 1891, during a blade test at the arsenal, he used two blades to successfully cut a pig's skull. Since there was no abnormality in either blade, they were adopted as military swords based on this result. Because it was inexpensive and easy for even junior officers to obtain, it was widely used in the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars, and it was proven to be a practical military sword that was resistant to rust and had a good cutting ability. Manufactured at the Tokyo Army Artillery Arsenal.

The inscription read "Shoju Kanemasa" and underneath it he wrote the four characters for Murata Tsuneyoshi in seal, creating a seal that combines the two characters. The year and manufacturing number are stamped on the back. In addition, swords that he forged himself were inscribed with the inscriptions "Kanemasa" and "Murata Tsuneyoshi." As it did not have a blade pattern, it did not receive any recognition in the sword world.(For more information, see "The Spirit of the Sword" by Murata Tsuneyoshi)

 

I had always wondered why the only smith we see on Murata-to (not zoheito) is Kanemasa.  That's because Kanemasa was Murata's swordmith name!

 

Also, the stamped numbers were his "manufacturing numbers"! 

 

I don't think I've ever seen one with "four characters for Murata Tsuneyoshi in seal, creating a seal that combines the two characters."

 

Very interesting!