Tassels for Rinji Seishiki?

[Bruce Pennington]

  On 9/13/2021 at 11:21 AM, PNSSHOGUN said:

beyond coincidence.....

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John,

We discussed this style on Neil's Manchurian Rinji Seishiki Sword thread.  I feel confident (opinion) that they were made by SMR.  No proof, but circumstantial evidence discussed on that thread.

[robinalexander]

That's a good thread Bruce with some considered comments about the possible 'rise' of the MRS.  I have to admit that I found that thread when I started looking at what Neil meant by MRS and after looking at his good pics.  Never seen them before and great to 'discover' yet another variation with some mystery attached.

Rob

[Stephen]

Seen,no info

[Kolekt-To]

Thanks Stephen! A few months ago, I removed a sarute from one of my RS/Type 3's because I thought that it might be fake or mistakenly placed on this type of sword. Now I know better (may re-install the sarute). The sarute is similar to the one pictured in your photo. From the discussion here, it appears that tassels were commonly found on RS/Type 3's, and that they were threaded through the hole on the kabutogane or through a plain metal ring sarute.

[Bruce Pennington]

I think the examples have shown that the tassels were worn either with sarute or without.  I suspect it was a shop option and maybe decided by the officer buying it, who knows!

 

Here's another without sarute that looks original.