WWII Japanese Sword

[JohnFlin]

Any information would be greatly appreciated regarding this sword, please see below pictures. Thanks for help you can give. John

[Kiipu]

Your sword was made by the South Manchuria Railway Company (SMR).  It is also referred to as a Mantetsu sword.

昭和甲申春 = Spring 1944.

満鐵鍛造之 = SMR forged this.

 

Below is a link to an article about your Mantetsu sword.

Mantetsu - South Manchurian Railway

[BANGBANGSAN]

1 hour ago, JohnFlin said:

 

John   Can you please take a photo of the spine of the tang, it should be a number there.Thanks !

 

[Ontario_Archaeology]

@Bruce Pennington

[Bruce Pennington]

John!  You just made my day!!!  Those fittings are rare.  Out of 280 SMR Mantetsu I have on file, only 10, now 11, are in those fittings.  We believe they were being made by the Mantetsu factory, as no other smith's blades have been found in them.  You can read more about these on Niel's @IJASWORDS thread - Manchurian Rinji Seishiki Sword

 

Along with the serial number on the mune (back edge of the tang), can you look closely near the top, close to the tsuba (handguard), maybe even under it, for a small stamp?

[ChrisW]

Bruce, seeing your reaction and joy in these various examples being shown is a joy in and of itself to watch. I would love to see you put together some infographics and charts on your findings sometime!

[Bruce Pennington]

13 minutes ago, ChrisW said:

some infographics and charts on your findings sometime!

You can read about much of it in the article Thomas liked above, but most of that is described in word form.  I'll look the survey over and see if I can post some interesting charted tidbits.

[JohnFlin]

On 2/20/2022 at 4:33 PM, Kiipu said:

Your sword was made by the South Manchuria Railway Company (SMR).  It is also referred to as a Mantetsu sword.

昭和甲申春 = Spring 1944.

満鐵鍛造之 = SMR forged this.

 

Below is a link to an article about your Mantetsu sword.

Mantetsu - South Manchurian Railway

Thanks for the translation! John

[JohnFlin]

On 2/20/2022 at 5:24 PM, BANGBANGSAN said:

 

Yes, I will take more pictures tomorrow. John

[JohnFlin]

On 2/20/2022 at 8:44 PM, Bruce Pennington said:

John!  You just made my day!!!  Those fittings are rare.  Out of 280 SMR Mantetsu I have on file, only 10, now 11, are in those fittings.  We believe they were being made by the Mantetsu factory, as no other smith's blades have been found in them.  You can read more about these on Niel's @IJASWORDS thread - Manchurian Rinji Seishiki Sword

 

Along with the serial number on the mune (back edge of the tang), can you look closely near the top, close to the tsuba (handguard), maybe even under it, for a small stamp?

Thank you for all of this information! I will look for a stamp tomorrow and take more photos. John

[JohnFlin]

On 2/20/2022 at 8:44 PM, Bruce Pennington said:

John!  You just made my day!!!  Those fittings are rare.  Out of 280 SMR Mantetsu I have on file, only 10, now 11, are in those fittings.  We believe they were being made by the Mantetsu factory, as no other smith's blades have been found in them.  You can read more about these on Niel's @IJASWORDS thread - Manchurian Rinji Seishiki Sword

 

Along with the serial number on the mune (back edge of the tang), can you look closely near the top, close to the tsuba (handguard), maybe even under it, for a small stamp?

Thank you for all of this information! I will look for a stamp tomorrow and take more photos. John

 

Attached are more photos taken today, thanks, Johm

[JohnFlin]

Just now, JohnFlin said:

Thank you for all of this information! I will look for a stamp tomorrow and take more photos. John

 

Attached are more photos taken today, thanks, Johm

And a few more

[Bruce Pennington]

Excellent @JohnFlin, thank you!  Hope you didn't put it all back together yet, as I need one more stamp.  It should be up in this area:

 

And it looks like this:

[Kiipu]

I already have your sword recorded by the student that polished the blade back in 1944!  I am not pulling your leg either even though it sounds unbelievable.  Compare the serial number on your sword, which is セ一二五一 [SE 1251], to the picture linked below.  Thanks for posting these additional pictures as it has made my day.

Attention Mantetsu Owners: A Survey, Page 10

[Bruce Pennington]

3 hours ago, Kiipu said:

Compare the serial number on your sword, which is セ一二五一 [SE 1251], to the picture linked below.

Wow Thomas, good catch!!!  I went to my files and had the number listed, but no photos, and couldn't remember why I would have the number without the photos.  But now I know!

 

John, this makes your gunto even more interesting, from a collector's point of view.  It was one of the blades listed in a high school girl's diary, posted in a book found by our own renowned @k morita.  She had been polishing blades for the Nanman (Nanban) Army Arsenal and listed several '44 and '45 Mantetsu blades.  You now own one of them!  Here's that pic for those who don't like following links:

[JohnFlin]

13 hours ago, Bruce Pennington said:

Excellent @JohnFlin, thank you!  Hope you didn't put it all back together yet, as I need one more stamp.  It should be up in this area:

 

And it looks like this:

Blew up one of the pictures of the full sword, there is a stamp. Let me know if you need a better photo.

[BANGBANGSAN]

@JohnFlin From the fuzzy photo,that mark looks like 連 rather than 南。The better photo would help.

[Bruce Pennington]

Definitely a better photo.  For me, it's all about the stamps! 

[Kiipu]

Correct Trystan, starting with the 45th series モ799, the 連 was used instead.  Nan-Man, when they took over, did things differently.  Nan-Man Arsenal had the blades inspected locally and then forwarded them to the arsenal for polishing and fitting out.  (Prior to this, the swords were sent to Nan-Man Arsenal and then inspected with the 南.  From Nan-Man Arsenal, they were forwarded to Japan for fitting out.)  This sword confirms that this Type 100 variant, which I refer to as the Nan-Man Type 4, a play on the names of both SMR 南満洲鉄道株式会社 and Nan-Man Arsenal 南滿陸軍造兵廠, was a product of the arsenal and unique to them.

[Bruce Pennington]

4 minutes ago, Kiipu said:

starting with the 45th series モ799, the 連 was used instead.

Right, didn't check my own charts!  Should be a Ren.