Late War Sword

[Butch]

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 ...

 The sword was made in August 1945 

The same month as the surrender

[Butch]

Pic2

[Butch]

Pic 3

[Butch]

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 

 

[Butch]

Would this sword would have been made for the1945 Defence Force ?

Gareth

[Bruce Pennington]

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]

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 

[BANGBANGSAN]

A few more photos of this sword

 

[Butch]

Yes that’s the sword Bill Tagg sold it to John Carlin the dealer about a year ago ...

Gareth 

[vajo]

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]

Yes your are correct 

hope you can see it from this pic

[Butch]

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]

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.

[Butch]

Another pic of the Hamon 

[robinalexander]

Bruce, @Bruce Pennington in regard to the pattern on the habaki, maybe this is the thread you were recalling.

 

 

[PNSSHOGUN]

3 hours ago, Butch said:

Yes your are correct 

hope you can see it from this pic

In the second pic it appears the Hamon runs off the edge, or is that a trick of the light?

[Kiipu]

No trick of the light.  The drawing posted by Trystan above shows the same thing.

[BANGBANGSAN]

Here is 小野一刀流  https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/小野派一刀流

I think maybe 信田良男 is the owner not the sword smith who made this blade.

[Baka Gaijin]

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.

 

[Butch]

11 hours ago, Butch said:

Thank you why do you think the school is mentioned on this blade ?

[Butch]

A better picture of the drawing showing the Hamon 

[PNSSHOGUN]

The Takayama-To are similar, specifically designed to match the style of swordsmanship. 

[Bruce Pennington]

14 hours ago, robinalexander said:

maybe this is the thread you were recalling.

That's a Bingo!  Thanks Rob!  I'm no mon expert but I'd guess those are 5 stars.  Like all mon by WWII, it could be for any number of family names.

[Bruno]

something doesn't look right- feels chinese