Tsuba and seppa

[kissakai]

Were these used throughout WWII or over a longer period

The colour is much better than the images

 

[kissakai]

Nothing?

 

[Bruce Pennington]

I wasn't going to chime in because I know almost nothing about sword before WWII.  I have seen the war kabutogane styles on old samurai swords, so I expect the military fashioned much of their fittings after popular samurai styles.  Can't say I've seen the navy tsuba/seppa style on anything before the war though.

[robinalexander]

I also have no expertise in regard to your question.  My opinion only, I would have though that the sunray pattern on kai seppa would have come about as a direct result of WW2 design and subsequent regulations. 

 

Assuming for a moment that is true, its feasible that the sunray pattern itself could have been based on some earlier historical design that happened to appeal to those deciding on the design for the complete IJN. Just thoughts. 

Rob

[Bruce Pennington]

Initial search on Wikipedia Page:

 

"The Rising Sun Flag (旭日旗, Kyokujitsu-ki) is a Japanese flag that consists of a red disc and sixteen red rays emanating from the disc.^[1] Like the Japanese national flag, the Rising Sun Flag symbolizes the sun.

The flag was originally used by feudal warlords in Japan during the Edo period (1603–1868 CE).^[2] On May 15, 1870, as a policy of the Meiji government, it was adopted as the war flag of the Imperial Japanese Army, and on October 7, 1889, it was adopted as the naval ensign of the Imperial Japanese Navy.^[3]"

 

^"The flag of Japan and the symbolism of the rising Sun has held symbolic meaning in Japan since the Asuka period (538–710 CE). The Japanese archipelago is east of the Asian mainland, and is thus where the Sun "rises". In 607 CE, an official correspondence that began with "from the Emperor of the rising sun" was sent to Chinese Emperor Yang of Sui.^[8] Japan is often referred to as "the land of the rising sun".^[9] In the 12th century work The Tale of the Heike, it was written that different samurai carried drawings of the Sun on their fans.^[10]

The Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced 'Nihon' or 'Nippon', and literally means "the origin of the sun". The character nichi (日) means "sun" or "day"; hon (本) means "base" or "origin".^[11] The compound therefore means "origin of the sun" and is the source of the popular Western epithet "Land of the Rising Sun".^[12] The red disc symbolizes the Sun and the red lines are light rays shining from the rising sun."

 

"The Rising Sun Flag was historically used by the daimyō (大名) and Japan's military, particularly the Imperial Japanese Army and the Imperial Japanese Navy. The ensign, known in Japanese as the Jyūrokujō-Kyokujitsu-ki (十六条旭日旗), was first adopted as the war flag on May 15, 1870, and was used until the end of World War II in 1945. It was re-adopted on June 30, 1954, and is now used by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF). The Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) and Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) use a variation of the Rising Sun Flag with red, white and gold colors.^[20]"

 

^{Haven't seen anything yet about sword use.}