Show us your nice Gendai blades

[francois2605]

[IJASWORDS]

Another (Kojima) KANENORI. SEKI JU KOJIMA KANENORI SAKU, no date. In war time polish. 

This time its the less common KOGARASU MARU shape. Little Crow shape I think its called. 

It would have had a leather combat cover, now gone. 

I guess a special order as its not the usual military issue. 

It has a few blemishes, nothing of concern, but would be nice polished.  

[reeder]

Nice Kanenori neil. Never saw one of his blades that wasn’t suguha and not sure I’ve seen showato kogarasu maru before. Is the blade thinner than usual? Same size?

[IJASWORDS]

 

Brandon, same length and thickness as a normal blade. 

[Bruce Pennington]

That's gorgeous!  I love that style blade!

[Brian]

A Kogarasu Maru style blade is in the top 3 Grail items I want to own oneday. There is just something about that shape.

[vajo]

Fantastic sword Neil!

[IJASWORDS]

Renowned for their cutting ability, (Mori) YOSHICHIKA, was selected to make swords for the Japanese Imperial Guard. Some of his blades even have cutting tests engraved, where they were tested on pigs, (dead ones I hope!). 

From my research, there were father and son, (Shodai and Nidai) YOSHICKICKA. This blade was found in very old 'D' Guard mounts, so it is Shodai. There is however no date, no stamps. He resided in Tokyo, and made swords in the Taisho and Showa periods. 

Rated as a 1.5 million Yen smith, he is regarded as a high-grade Gendaito.  

This example exhibits mokume hada, gunome-midare hamon?, and habuchi. 

I would appreciate seeing other other examples of YOSICHICKA work and mei for my research.  

Edited February 8, 2021 by IJASWORDS

[lonely panet]

neil listed a EMURA in type 44 mounts. so ill post a Emura in type 98 mounts, complete with leather saya cover, long company grade tassel, number habaki and pierced tsuba 

[IJASWORDS]

Hamish, good to see an EMURA in '98 mounts, as many are in RS (type44) mounts. And what a NICE blade you have! My '98 EMURA (no date no stamps), also has numbered blade, and numbered fittings. 

Keep the GENDAI blades coming! 

[Daniel]

Mei: Toei Ju Ota Chikahide   
Date: Showa jyu shi nen hachi gatsu hi (august 1940)
Nagasa : 27  3/8 "
Sori: 18.0 mm
Width at the ha-machi: 31.6 mm
Width at the yokote: 20.7 mm 
Thickness at the mune-machi: 7.7 mm
 

[Daniel]

CHIKAHIDE (親秀), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Shizuoka – “Ōta Chikahide” (太田親秀), “Tōtōmi-jū Ōta Chikahida” (遠江住太田親秀), real name Ōta Harutoki (太田春時), born March 20th 1893, besides of his hometown Inasa (引佐), he also worked in Tōkyō and in Ōsaka, jōko no jōi (Akihide), First Seat at the 6th Shinsaku Nihontō Denrankai (新作日本刀展覧会, 1941)

[Daniel]

[Daniel]

Date: Showa ju hachi nen ichi gatsu kitsu jitsu (one lucky day in January 1943)
Nagasa : 24 1/2 "
Sori: 15.0mm
Width at the ha-machi: 30.5mm
Width at the yokote: 20.8mm 
Thickness at the mune-machi: 8.3mm
Construction: shinogi-zukuri
Mune: iori
Nakago: ubu
Kitae: itame
Hamon: gunome
Boshi:  maru
 

[Daniel]

[Daniel]

Akitaka (昭孝), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Niigata – „Akitaka“ (昭孝), civilian name „Nakabayashi Fukutarō“ (中林福太郎), born 1910, he worked as rikugun-jumei-tōshō
 

This is a very beautiful blade. In my experience many/most blades in type 3 mounts are very  robust but this is very elegantly shaped and light in hand.

[IJASWORDS]

Debate rages on whether or not Mantetsu swords are true nihonto, in spite of them receiving papers recently. 

Here is a Winter 1938 example, with the rare South Manchurian Railway stamp, and mune stamp, N156. 

This very early production specimen exhibits hada, hamon, and habuchi, all evidence of nihonto. 

It is mounted in Manchurian RS mounts (made in Manchuria, for the severe weather conditions), that some may say are late war, but I would disagree that they are late war, as I have collected many examples that span many years. So unless any critics of this hypothesis have a cupboard full, or studied them at length, I am sticking to my theory. F&G, and later repeated by Dawson, hypothesized that they were late war Japanese home defense swords, based on very few examples they had seen, and extrapolating then that they were a roughly made RS model. Not so, they are a model in their own right, made in Manchuria for Manchuria.

Also note interesting markings on fittings.      

[lonely panet]

I also agree with neil, and to point out the very different ashi. Very Chinese looking influenced imho

[Bruce Pennington]

3 hours ago, IJASWORDS said:

Also note interesting markings on fittings.

Have you made an attempt to get the tsuba kanji translated?

[IJASWORDS]

Bruce, I was hoping you or some other expert could do it. Have you seen that "P" stamp before? 

[Bruce Pennington]

24 minutes ago, IJASWORDS said:

Have you seen that "P" stamp before? 

No.  Enlarging it, I almost wonder if it isn't a "rail" stamp with some sort of curved attached? or was it simply the way this guy cut a "P" and I'm seeing too much into it?

 

I'll run the other kanji by the Translation section.

[BANGBANGSAN]

28 minutes ago, IJASWORDS said:

Bruce, I was hoping you or some other expert could do it. Have you seen that "P" stamp before? 

Maybe "Private" or "  Pennington"

[IJASWORDS]

I don't want to hijack my own thread, but here is another Manchurian RS sword from my stash. 

Note the "RAIL" stamp, it doesn't look like it could be converted into a "P", as Bruce suggests, but nothing is imposible. 

Also interesting is that the mune numbers in Japanese characters 2430, are stamped on the fittings in Arabic numerials. Has anyone come across this before?  

[IJASWORDS]

A sword signed, IZUMO KUNI JU TADAYOSHI SAKU, no date no stamps. There were father and son Shodai/Nidai making blades for the war effort. This is Shodai Kawashima (sometimes the name Kawajima is used) Tadayoshi, who worked in Izumo, now called Shimane Prefecture.  

The polisher took great steps to show off the Choji Gunome Midare Hamon. 

[vfc]

Keep them coming Neil how many Beautiful sword do you have????

[IJASWORDS]

By the way, thanks mecox and David Flynn for helping with information on the sword smith. 

[IJASWORDS]

A (Kurihara) Akihide. Much is written about Akihide, his politics, membership of Black Dragon Society, member of the Diet (parliament), and more importantly to sword students, established the Nihonto Tanren Denshusho in Tokyo. He had more than 50 students that went through his school. He is highly rated in his own right, a a superior sword smith, as are many of his students. 

This is a sword signed, and dated October 1943. Made in the Bizen tradition with Shinshinto characteristics. 

Silver mon with golden highlights, canvas saya cover, a fitting package for a nice blade. 

 

[vfc]

Maeda Yoshiteru 

A student of Tadayoshi i think if you have any more info on this smith let me know.

[Bazza]

Vitt,

 

This seems to be a long blade??  What is the length please??

 

BaZZa.

[vfc]

BaZZa.

66.5 cm cutting edge i think it looks longer in the photo.