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Late War Sword

Butch

By Butch
in Military Swords of Japan

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Butch Rising Star

Butch

Posted
Posted

Here is a last ditch Wartime sword .

The sword came from a country house sale many years ago .

Bill Tagg owned this sword for a number of years ...60C00C8B-93D3-4A12-9CA9-52902A2D3F9D.thumb.jpeg.86b313680b47e4df558b781ef631b9ec.jpeg54D2386F-F71D-4AB6-A54F-4C6D2C13C0DD.thumb.jpeg.2e51967dec67fb7d8e20292aba1242c8.jpeg1A21ADEB-A224-46D5-B2BC-80B85F834125.thumb.jpeg.fb31d74d7dd150b8e727b192e3eff5de.jpeg

 The sword was made in August 1945 

The same month as the surrender

Butch Rising Star

Butch

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The fittings are very basic as can be seen by the pic..

The inscription mentions the (Ono Haitto Ryu)

oldest sword school in Japan ..

The tang is very well shaped and with the Kanji very well cut .The Tsuba is brass and is a 16 petal Chrysanthemum design .

The Habaki is solid copper with a drilled design Bill thought it could be in a shape of a family Mon ?.

part of Bills description 307B96B4-9CC9-4ADF-A12B-5487EAAF4DB2.thumb.jpeg.42f457b3d384b96a1d8adcaa6ae32eba.jpeg

 

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Bruce Pennington Grand Master

Bruce Pennington

Posted
Posted

Gareth,

That is quite a fantastic gunto!  You are right about the pattern on the habaki.  A similar one was discussed earlier, if I can find it, I'll update with a link, but it is a mon.

 

The fittings are simply late war.  I had a similar discussion with Nick Komiya, HERE at Warrelics, and this is what he said:

 

"It depends on what is meant by a sword for “Homeland Defense”. Does that mean for issue to Civil Defense groups or does it simply mean a last ditch (in the homeland) army sword, a makeshift version of the already “substitute status” Rinji Seishiki sword?

There is no chance that such a sword was made for civil defense units. Core members of civil defense were policemen and firefighters, but such personnel simply could not get swords, due to wartime shortages. This shortage got to the point of prefectural police chiefs receiving a nationwide memo dated 27th February 1945 saying that though huge efforts were being made to secure a supply of badly needed swords, no magic solution was in sight and that the only immediate remedy was to ask retired police and fire brigade members to hand in their swords for use by incumbents, should they still have them.

On the civilian front, the standard weapon of choice for Homeland Defense was the stereotype of sharpened bamboo poles, and there certainly was no plan nor intention to arm civilians with swords.

What Bruce is calling a Homeland Defense model can only be a last ditch effort to continue the Rinji Seishiki effort. As I already explained here, the heavy bombings of 1944 basically killed off the sword industry by spring of 1945. Manufacturing within Japan was in the process of evacuation and relocation to a remote area outside the normal target areas."

Butch Rising Star

Butch

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Thanks Bruce spoke to  Bill to inform  it was a Mon on the habaki as he wasn’t sure .

He said that sword always fascinated him.

He believes the sword to be artisan made but he said what got him excited was the date of the blade being August 1945  the month of the surrender of Japan so one of the last gunto swords to be made .

Thanks Gareth 

vajo Grand Master

vajo

Posted
Posted

Very curios hamon. Looks strange for someone who likes traditional nihonto. Is the first part complete hardnend? The hardning edge runs into the shinogi? Can you make better pictures of the blade to see what is happned on the sword? I can't recognize anything on these pictures.

Butch Rising Star

Butch

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This sword is totally different to anything I have in my collection...

Yet such a rare blade being the end of wartime sword making .

Thanks Gareth

vajo Grand Master

vajo

Posted
Posted

Oh wow.

Never seen anything like before.

Maybe the smith was frighten by a bomber raid as he worked on forming the yakiba with clay?

 

A very unique sword.

  • Haha 2
Baka Gaijin Grand Master

Baka Gaijin

Posted
Posted

Good morning Gareth,

 

An interesting attribution to the Ono Ha Itto Ryu.

 

This should fill in the gaps about this fine tradition, which was founded in 1580 by Ono Jiroemon Tadaaki (1565 - 1628), a Monjin (Disciple) of Itto Ittosai Kagehisa (1560 - 1653).

 

It is however not the oldest school, as there are other systems still in existence which pre date it by a Century or so.

 

https://budojapan.com/feature-articles/ono-ha-itto-ryu-yuji-yabuki-kiriotoshi/

 

Here's how they train:

 

 

The resounding clash of the blades at the end of the section is from the use of  "Habiki" katana, (real steel with no cutting edge), not Duramilium "Mogi-to" which are often used in Kendo no Kata.

 

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