Wartime Japanese Radio Broadcasts Related To Swords

[Kiipu]

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Patriotic Society for Restoring and Tempering Bizen Swords

In the village of Miyuki, Oku-gun, in Okayama Prefecture,...the Historic Relic Preservation Society was recently changed to the Patriotic Society for the Restoring and Tempering of Bizen Swords...A new sword smithy, costing several tens of thousands yen, has already been completed, and Shuuko Imaizumi has been named the first swordsmith.  Many returning wounded soldiers will take up apprenticeship here.

(Tok. Jap. Date 1945-02-04)

 

[Kiipu]

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Mugi District Sword Tempering

Gifu Prefecture:  Persons engaged in (tempering swords) of Mugi District of Gifu Prefecture, widely known as a center for tempering excellent swords, are continuing their (excellent) services to the nation, patriotism in the form of military swords...

(Tok. Jap. Date 1945-03-03)

 

Edited April 27, 2021 by Kiipu

[Bruce Pennington]

Just got a quick education on the Bizen school.  They were 1100-1400 year range, right?  Why would they establish a Restoration & tempering operation for just that year group of blades?

[Kiipu]

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Horyuji Temple Swords

Nara:  The old Horyuji Temple has decided to donate more than 6,000 prized swords to the army.  The swords recently were appraised and classified by experts, after which Asano, clerk at the temple, visited Tokyo and got the permission of the Education Ministry to release these prized weapons, which have long been in the temple’s possession.

(Tok. Jap. Date 1945-02-20)

 

Edited April 27, 2021 by Kiipu

[Brian]

So these seem to have been better quality than the cheap civilian ones purchased by the military for issue. I guess this could have added to the pool of very good swords sometimes found in Gunto mounts.
6000 Swords! Wow. What exactly were these temples and shrines doing with that many swords, and how do they even store them?

[ChrisW]

Hopefully not stacked like cordwood! But if it were that many, they must have been considered 'arsenal' grade and stored as such.

[Kiipu]

During the war, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) monitored Radio Tokyo and affiliated stations.  The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) would then assemble these intercepts into various topics, such as industry or agriculture.  I have transcribed the text as it appears in the documents.  The exception is the date which I have changed to the international standard. For example, 2/4/45 is changed to 1945-02-04 per ISO 8601.  From studying the documents, I believe the abbreviations at the end of the intercepts are as such.

Tok. = Radio Tokyo. See the Wikipedia article NHK.

Jap. = Japanese language broadcast.

[Kiipu]

Quote

Swords

Anshan:  Koodoo Suzuki, who has won a reputation in Japan and Manchukuo for his superior Japanese sword manufactured from sponge iron, will soon begin mass production through the aid of officials of the Manchukuo Steel Works.  Suzuki has been rushing the completion of various installations, such as the sword polishing laboratory within the company’s Research Department, so that production can be started soon.  His Japanese sword has been named the “Tekkon.”

(Tok. Jap. 1944-10-13)

 

[Kiipu]

Quote

Premier Tojo said, “There is a special method of manufacturing steel in Japan since the days of old and by applying it special Japanese steel will be made.  Iron sands are found everywhere in Japan and tempering of this iron sand is a method.”

(1943-02-05 Tok. Jap.)

 

While not directly related to swords, the Premier is probably referring to some variation of tamahagane (玉鋼).

Rikugun Jumei Tosho (RJT) Star Stamped Blades - Documentation?, Post #31

[Kiipu]

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Osabune Works

Okayama:  In Okayama Prefecture, the producing center of Bizen swords, which has turned out such famous blades as the Osabune, white-clothed (i.e., hospitalized – trans.) heroes are now about to be trained as swordsmiths.  On the occasion of Army Day on the 10th, classes for training in the technique of making and tempering Japanese swords will be started for disabled soldiers, at the Osabune works and three other plants in the town of Miyuki, Oku County, in this prefecture, which is known as the birthplace of the Bizen sword.

(1944-03-08 Tok. Jap.)

 

trans. = translator.

[Kiipu]

On 4/27/2021 at 9:44 AM, Kiipu said:

Horyuji Temple Swords

 

I ran across a picture of the above temple that depicted some of the swords that they had while reading Markus Sesko's blog.  I thought others would be interested in seeing the picture and possibly reading the blog as well.  In addition, I thought IJASwords would also enjoy seeing some really old crossguard molds!

Cast Sword Fittings

[george trotter]

Just out of interest on Kiipu's quote from Tojo about sand-iron (post #9), here is an oshigata of a gendaito (not dated) in WWII gunto mounts I came across 35 years ago...made from Tottori coast sand iron. It was made by Kunifusa (I think of Seki) . I sent  this to Richard Fuller (pink book p.55). This must be one of the swords made from sand iron in WWII as per Tojo's article.

[Bruce Pennington]

Interesting point Marcus made about the population at the time - "It is estimated that the samurai class made up about 10% of the Japanese population. In the early Edo period, Japan had a population of about 12,000,000 to 18,000,000 and about steady 30,000,000 from Genroku (1688-1704) to the end of the Edo period. So if we start with 12,000,000, about 2,500,000 swords (daishô, thus times two the 10%) have been worn at any given day in the early, and about 6,000,000 swords throughout the later Edo period. Well, tsuba and sword fittings were of course reused and handed down in the peaceful Edo period but still,..."   And I thought 2 million swords made for WWII was a lot!!!

[Kiipu]

23 hours ago, george trotter said:

It was made by Kunifusa (I think of Seki).

 

There was a Tōkyō area swordsmith by the name of 大島･房木郎 that signed as 藤原来國房 [Fujiwara Rai Kunifusa].  In 1937 his monthly output was five (5) swords and he had no apprentices.  Possibly this was the swordsmith that made the sword?

[george trotter]

That is interesting Thomas...may be him.  - Where did you find that Kunifusa info?

 

Here is another oshigata of Rai Kunifusa, also from the pink book p.125, owned by Ron Gregory.

This one is also undated and named HIRYU MARU (flying dragon?).

[george trotter]

Thomas ...I had a look on NMB and there were discussions on this smith in 2009 and 2020. I show a page from Dia Nihon Token Shojko Meikan 1942 p.92. This is a full page advert incl. Fujiwara Rai Kunifusa of Tokyo....but is it him?

[Kiipu]

13 hours ago, george trotter said:

Where did you find that Kunifusa info?

 

My source is a police document form 1937 that came via another forum.  It is hard for me to tell if 来國房 and 藤原来國房 are one and the same.  I found two 藤原来國房 swords on NMB and the signatures differ significantly from each other.

type 94 gunto smith translation

FUJIWARA RAI KUNIFUSA, request details on this sword smith, Post #7

[george trotter]

Just another of those WWII mysteries...