WW2 army officers signed sword

[phil reid]

OK , Im terrible at this , managed SHOWA and some numbers and now my eyes are going blurry . Help please

[phil reid]

Also characters on back edge

[SteveM]

興亜一心満鉄作之
昭和庚辰春

Kōa Isshin Mantetsu saku kore

Shōwa kanoe-tatsu, haru

 

Spring, 1940

 

On the spine: リ三二八

No deep meaning, just a manufacturing number. Bruce may know more. 

[Bruce Pennington]

Phil,

Is this yours?  How much do you want to know about the Koa Isshin Mantetsu?

 

The serial number puts this in the middle of the year of 1940, regardless of the "Spring" on the date.  Almost all of them say "Spring" for some reason.

 

Thanks for posting, I didn't have this one in the Mantetsu Survey.  Now I do!

[phil reid]

Thankyou SteveM and Bruce ,

 Yes mine , did you want some more photos . What I understand of the Koa Isshin swords was that they were a "Asian" patriotic blade and the steel was from the asian mainland and shipped back to Japan to produce these swords(probably got it wrong , ill sit down tonight and look up). Im such a dope , ive another of these Koa Isshin Mantetsu sword , ill pull it apart and flick you photos on weekend as may be another for your survey.

[Bruce Pennington]

Thanks Phil, I'd love to get the photos of your second one!  Your photos of this one are sufficient, thanks.  I'm attaching an article @Kiipu, @16k, and I wrote for the JSSUS newsletter on the Mantetsu blade.  It has probably more than you'll ever want to know.

MANTETSU DISCOVERIES.pdfFetching info...