Arsenal Mark on RJT sword Fittings

[BANGBANGSAN]

Star stamped Rinji ,June 1943,平松正知  Hiramatsu  Masatomo

MASATOMO (正知), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Ōsaka – “Masatomo” (正知), real name Hiramatsu Danji (平松団次), born October 27th 1901, he studued under Morita Masamichi (森田正道) and worked as rikugun-jumei-tōshō。

 

[Bruce Pennington]

That's the 3rd, and earliest Masatomo I have on file now.  The 2 others are May and Sep 1944.

[Bruce Pennington]

A great find by @Stephen on this http://Samuraishokai.jp sale page:

 

An Aug '43 RJT blade by Sato Akinori.  First blade of his I have on record and only the second Saitama prefecture katakana + number (the other was an Aug '44 blade by Akitusgu)

 

[Stephen]

Ha I missed the stamped 164

[vajo]

A type 3 niigata Chikafusa gendaito is offered on facebook for $1000 

If someone wants to jump in i don't know where this sword is located. Looks like Pakistan or something else in that region. After some research the same guy postet that sword 2021 first and asked for any infos. 

Chikafusa is something rare.

 

It looks like a job for Indiana Jones.

 

https://www.facebook.../groups/255263006217

 

 

 

 

 

[Kiipu]

 

☆　武蔵国昭則造之　Musashi-no-kuni Akinori Tsukuru Kore.

昭和十八年八月吉日　サ１６４　A lucky day in August 1943　SA-164.

A Type 100 with a star stamp and prefecture serial number.

品番No-sw23169

[Bruce Pennington]

7 hours ago, Kiipu said:

☆　武蔵国昭則造之　Musashi-no-kuni Akinori Tsukuru Kore.

昭和十八年八月吉日　サ１６４　A lucky day in August 1943　SA-164

Good eye, Thomas!  But Stephen beat you to the punch.  See my post just above Trystans.

[Bruce Pennington]

8 hours ago, vajo said:

type 3 niigata Chikafusa gendaito

Chris,

I'm not on Facebook.  Any way to get a clear shot of the full nakago.  There very well might be a stamped number, with kana, on the end.

 

Date looks like 1943.

[vajo]

I ask him Bruce.

 

[Bruce Pennington]

2 hours ago, vajo said:

I ask him Bruce.

Chris,

Looks like ナ30 or ナ50.  Sorry to bother you, but could you get clarification from him on that?

[vajo]

He did not answer yet. Others sent him offers around $800. It's a little strange. Someone cut out the menuki from the tsuka 

[Kiipu]

@mecox Who is this?

s499 nice Japanese Gunto sword star stamped gendaito pat 44 mounts

[mecox]

Mei is      Seki Ju Kanetomo      date is Showa 20 (1945)  February    and he is RJT with star.  Maybe is he this one:  but not 100% sure 

KANETOMO (兼友), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Gifu – “Miwa Kanetomo saku” (三輪兼友作), “Kanetomo” (兼友), real name Miwa Shizuo (三輪静夫), born March 31st 1916, student of Kojima Kanemichi (小島兼道), he worked as guntō smith and died July 27th 1994, jōkō no retsu (Akihide), Second Seat at the 6th Shinsaku Nihontō Denrankai (新作日本刀展覧会, 1941)

 

                       

[Bruce Pennington]

Speaking of poorly cut mei!  Look at that "Sho" at the beginning of the date:

 

Makes me think of that other discussion we were having.  This is Jan '45, and the other is not dated, but fittings bespeak late-war.  They must have had some really inexperienced labor in that last year as we were decimating the sword factories.

[Bruce Pennington]

Thanks to @John C, who sent me a fully translated page from Ohmura's site, we have confirmation that the stamped numbers on RJT blades were in fact put there by the armory!  We still don't have documentation that explains the stamped numbers on non-RJT blades, but this is great news, for me at least!

 

From the page:

"The sword blade stems delivered to this armory are: (1) Those with only a "star" mark that has passed the Army Material Inspection (2) A "star" and a number stamp on the stem butt (3) A "star" and an inspection mark on the stem building (4) There are various types such as those with a "star" and a small "sekiin". Items made before the designation of a swordsmith or items sold directly without delivery to the armory due to special circumstances even during the period of swordsmithing will not be marked with these inspection seals, number stamps, etc. A sword that does not have the date of manufacture cut on the back of the stem is not a sword that has been once delivered to the armory, even if it is a standard sword of the swordsmith."

 

Noteworthy on another topic is the statement that "Items made before the designation of a swordsmith or items sold directly without delivery to the armory due to special circumstances even during the period of swordsmithing will not be marked with these inspection seals, number stamps, etc." confirming what we've been saying about RJT qualified smiths selling blades directly to the market, bypassing the arsenal, not having stamps.

 

Edit: I just realized they stated that blades sold outside the armory will NOT have stamped numbers:

"Items made before the designation of a swordsmith or items sold directly without delivery to the armory due to special circumstances even during the period of swordsmithing will not be marked with these inspection seals, number stamps,"

 

Translated page attached:

 

About the specifications of the sword.docx

[Kiipu]

７６３

昭和十七年一月吉日　A lucky day in January 1942.

馬場継清作之　Baba Tsugukiyo saku kore.

馬場継清作之　昭和十七年一月吉日

 

１４７６

昭和十七年八月　August 1942.

群馬今井兼継　Gunma Imai Kanetsugu.

群馬今井兼継 昭和十七年 NO1476

 

１７８６

祐弘作　Sukehiro saku.

皇紀二千六百二年仲冬　Midwinter 1942.

皇紀二千六百二年仲冬1786祐弘作銘陸軍士官三式軍刀拵え入り刀

[Bruce Pennington]

2 hours ago, Kiipu said:

昭和十七年一月吉日　A lucky day in January 1942.

馬場継清作之 ７６３　Baba Tsugukiyo saku kore.

馬場継清作之　昭和十七年一月吉日

 

Number 1476 via text.

群馬今井兼継 昭和十七年 NO1476

 

祐弘作　Sukehiro saku.

皇紀二千六百二年仲冬 １７８６　Midwinter 1942 1786.

皇紀二千六百二年仲冬1786祐弘作銘陸軍士官三式軍刀拵え入り刀

Thanks Thomas!  I never would have seen those on those sites.

[Bruce Pennington]

A June 1942 Hiromasa, sent to me via email from Robinalexander.  Nakago only photos.  Has the Yama Ho stamps. 

@mecox

 

 

Just a reminder.  We had been discussing a June '42 Masatsugu on another thread and it was said that it might have been too early for the RJT star to be present.  After logging this Hiromasa, I was reminded of 3 earlier blades:

 

STAR Blades

1941, Jun	Gifu	Kanetoshi, Murayama	T98	Bangbangsan, NMB
1942, Feb	Saga	Masatsugu		Ganko, NMB
1942, Mar	Gunma	Kanetsugu	RS	Ganko, NMB
1942, Spring	Gifu	Kanenobu	RS	Ganko, NMB
1942, Jun May	Ehime	Hiromasa		Robinalexander, email
1942, June	Saga	Masatsugu	Na Ho on mune	Shuriken, NMB
1942, Aug	Akita	Chikamitsu	406	Peter(C),NMB
1942, Aug	Saga	Masatsugu		Kapp/Monson,pg82
1942, Aug	Fukushima	Shigefusa	Ho on mune	MeCox, NMB
1942, Aug	Tokyo	Sukehiro	1525	Slough, pg 162
1942, Aug	Saga	Yoshitada		ebay
1942, Sep	Saga	Kanemoto	Na Ho on mune	Zentsuji2, NMB
1942, Sep	Kumamoto	Morinobu	94; Ho Ho mune
1942, Autumn	Niwa	Kanenobu		Slough

 

So June '42 wasn't too early. 

[mecox]

@Bruce Pennington  Bruce, this is May 1942 ("go gatsu")  even earlier!     But "Yama / Ho"   山 / ホ   fits the story.

[Bruce Pennington]

5 hours ago, mecox said:

May 1942

Yikes! Thanks Mal.  Doesn't happen as often anymore, but I still get 5's and 6's mixed up sometimes.  I'll correct the chart and file!

[Bruce Pennington]

Mal,

Got another Matsu stamped Akihisa.  January 1943, 松 607 RS star.  For sale by St. Croix Blades HERE. 

 

[Bruce Pennington]

And one we didn't have in the charts, until now, an August 1943 Hisatsugu, on Japanesesword.com

 

[Bruce Pennington]

More star news!  Only the second MUMEI, no date, star-stamped blade I've seen.  First one was posted by @BANGBANGSAN here:

This new one is on this ima-usa.com page:

[BANGBANGSAN]

11 hours ago, Bruce Pennington said:

More star news!  Only the second MUMEI, no date, star-stamped blade I've seen.  First one was posted by @BANGBANGSAN here:

This new one is on this ima-usa.com page:

Thanks for posting this. It looks like there were some engravings on the tang, but they were scratched off?

The tassel is very interesting. It looks like it was fieldmade and wrapped around the wrist to prevent slipping, rather than to indicate rank.

[Bruce Pennington]

For those following RJT blades - @vajo @BANGBANGSAN @Kiipu - just found the second earliest RJT blade so far.  Posted by @Stephen V back in 2013 here: 

It's an August 1941 Akiyoshi:

 

Only one earlier is a June 1941, Kanetoshi, posted by Trystan.

[Bruce Pennington]

Got another - Oct '42 Akiyoshi, stamped with "153".  Didn't save the link but it was a Worthpoint post of an old ebay sale:

[Bruce Pennington]

Been searching the web for RJT smiths not in the chart yet, and found this Akitomi on this Aoijapan.net page.  Interesting that Sesko's list didn't have his prefecture.  But due to what we've discovered about prefecture-specific katakana + numbering, we can see he was from Saitama.  We already have Akinori and Akitsugu with the サ stamp, both from Saitama.  Interesting that they are all 3 "Aki" names.  It is the latest date observed using the katakan + numbering system, also.

 

The JSI RJT List shows a "Kotani Akitomi", but Sesko and Aoi Japan lists him as "Koyano Akitomi". 

 

[Bruce Pennington]

An Akikuni posted by @csymmes back in 2010 (not likely to get him back for better photos) on this NMB Thread.  He doesn't post full photos of the nakago, so I cannot verify the date or name, which he states in text form, is February 1941.  Actually he was told the translation by an unnamed source.  If so, it moves the RJT program up in time considerably.  Previously, the earliest star-stamped blades was a June 1941 Kanetoshi.

 

 

[Bruce Pennington]

And finally, for today, a July 1943 Akimichi, thanks to our good friend @Beater.  Another Saitama smith, サ 123

[BANGBANGSAN]

On 12/8/2024 at 5:43 AM, Bruce Pennington said:

Got another - Oct '42 Akiyoshi, stamped with "153".  Didn't save the link but it was a Worthpoint post of an old ebay sale:

 

It looks like sold by Showa22