South Manchuria Railways tang--any in your collection?

[TomP]

Hello,

 

I am a long time reader, first time poster.

I was wondering if anyone had a South Manchurian Railways stamped blade in their collection and if they would be willing to post a pic. of the stamped tang? I read in Fuller & Gregory's ref. book that "a few" stamped blades are known to be out there, but there were no pics. of one in their book. Any help would be greatly appreciated with this. Thanks for you time!

 

 

Tom

[Nobody]

You might already know this.

Ref. http://www.h4.dion.ne.jp/~t-ohmura/gunto_114.htm

[Brian]

Koichi,

Just as an off-topic...

Your new signature line has me laughing at my pc. :lol:

 

Brian

[Jean]

Your new signature line has me laughing at my pc

 

Brian, You should have answered why looking at Koichi san new signature, taking into account your last health ordeals : "Sometimes I'm up, Sometimes I'm down, O yes L..." but that, nevertheless, as Ol'Man River "you keep on rolling alone"

[Rich S]

Some of the mantetsu blades made in the Dairen Railroad factory may bear the stamp of the Manchuria Railroad company (right). These were made in the late 1930's and are considered relatively rare.

 

Other blades with the plain mantetsu mei will have the stamp of the Manchurian Mukden arsenal, sometimes referred to as the "nan" stamp. This was used from the late 1930's until 1945.

 

-------------------

This is from my website. See http://www.geocities.com/alchemyst/koa.htm

for pics of the stamps.

 

Rich S

[bdgrange]

Just bought the one on e bay. Waiting for delivery. Will tell you about it when I

recieve it.

regards

Bill de

[TomP]

Thanks everyone for the input. Much appreciated!

[Bazza]

Just bought the one on e bay. Waiting for delivery. Will tell you about it when I

recieve it.

regards

Bill de

Bill, was that the one that ended on 6th April: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 41447879???

 

I hope everyone has seen the current ebay offering of item number 160327642221???? (!!!!)

 

A friend of mine 4 hours drive away has one, but I have no photos of it until I see him again.

 

Regards

Barry Thomas.

[Ted Tenold]

Tom,

 

Here is another image of the early South Manchurian Railway stamp to suppliment the link Moriyama-san posted. These are somewhat rare and predate the "Koaisshin Mantetsu" signatures. Best I can tell this early stamp was used up until about March or April of 1939 at which point the Koaisshin signatures were implemented. However the zodiac dating system was initiated with this stamp and continued thoughout production.

 

[bdgrange]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0329366539

Response to Barry, et al.

This one is all original and complete and in need of polish.

It has the small w stamped above and below which is supposed to mean

that it was made by either Takehisa or Haruhisa. It has nice sugata, looks

koto. Muji hada and suguha hamon through to boshi.. No real problems.

I like it. Strangely the tsuka ito is there and well done but the same is almost

completely gone. Like it was eaten. I am cleaning it up with uchigo.

I particularly like the history that is comming forth about these and the

Manchurian railroad and Japans expansion in North China. Wonder how how

all of those settlers ever got back home?

kind regards

Bill delagrange

[John A Stuart]

When the Red Army invaded Manchukuo, they captured 850,000 Japanese settlers. With the exception of some civil servants and soldiers, these were repatriated to Japan in 1946–7. Many Japanese orphans in China were left behind in the confusion by then Japanese government and were adopted by Chinese families. Some of them were stigmatized as Japanese during the Cultural Revolution, many however, integrated well into Chinese society. In the 1980s Japan began to organise a repatriation programme for them but not all chose to go back to Japan. John

[TomP]

Ted,

 

Thanks for the pic.

 

I am always on the lookout for a sword with this stamp, so if anyone knows of a guy who knows of a guy who is selling, I am in the market for one.

Thanks again!

 

 

Tom

[Ted Tenold]

Tom,

 

They come up on occasion so keep looking. There's also the occasional bits and bobs with the same logo on various things on Ebay, so you might do a search under South Manchurian Railway, or SMR, of Dairen Railway Factory.

 

Good Luck!