Japanese Prison Camp Sword

[ChrisW]

Hello all!

I have a long-time friend who has held this sword in their family since he and his brother were young boys; they had bought it from a furniture store owner for the princely sum of $10. He believes it to be a Japanese concentration camp guard sword. It is clearly a machine-made wartime blade but has clearly age-appropriate red paint on the scabbard and a mechanical latch. I examined the saya thoroughly and believe the paint is original to it; there is no sign of any underlying other paint. The blade and scabbard are matching numbers. I will let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

My asks are:

What exactly am I looking at?
How unusual is something like this?
For something as specific as this, what would the potential value be?

 

[Kiipu]

It is a Type 95 Military Sword that was used by the lower ranks.  @Shamsy or @Stegel will need to look at the scabbard color to determine if it is kosher or not.  Do you have a picture of the scabbard mouth showing the serial number?  Below is a little primer for your friend to get him started on what he has.

IJA Type 95 NCO Sword Info

[ChrisW]

I did not think to take a picture of it, but the numbers on the scabbard mouth and blade do match. I do remember checking that.

[Kiipu]

Thanks for the prompt reply Chris.  I asked as I could not find the small screw 小ねじ that holds the koiguchi 鯉口 on.

 

In hand, is the scabbard color red or burgundy?  It is hard to tell from the pictures.

 

FYI, the late Barnes san recorded 名83725.  This is one digit higher than the one you depict above!

[Stegel]

Yes this is a genuine Type95 NCO sword, made by the Seki group under Kokura Administration.

These used to be common and able to be bought cheaply in the US and Australia. However they are not as easily found nowadays, as most have found their ways into collections or kept by the veteran’s family’s as heirlooms to be passed down the line etc.

The scabbard colour appears to be the “red bean” colour, which is actually NOT as common as some would believe. 
 Given today’s market it should easily fetch US$1000 as a rough guide.

Obviously the better the condition, then the price would go up accordingly.

I hope this helps you out.

[ChrisW]

The second to last picture is probably the closest to true-light color that I captured. It is a deep red, not quite burgundy, but not quite fire truck red either.

[ChrisW]

3 minutes ago, Stegel said:

Yes this is a genuine Type95 NCO sword, made by the Seki group under Kokura Administration.

These used to be common and able to be bought cheaply in the US and Australia. However they are not as easily found nowadays, as most have found their ways into collections or kept by the veteran’s family’s as heirlooms to be passed down the line etc.

The scabbard colour appears to be the “red bean” colour, which is actually NOT as common as some would believe. 
 Given today’s market it should easily fetch US$1000 as a rough guide.

Obviously the better the condition, then the price would go up accordingly.

I hope this helps you out.

Was the color of the saya an optional a soldier could order or was it more for a rank or placement?

Also, thank you all!

[Shamsy]

Red bean is an extremely rare variation to the usual greens and browns of saya. There are only a handful of these I've seen. It was typically used to paint field equipment later in the war and there is no evidence to suggest the use of this colour is in any way linked to rank or personal preference (which seeing as an NCO does not own their sword, wouldn't likely happen). Pure speculation, but it's probably only used when the more traditional colours weren't available and painting was required for maintenance and protection. 

 

There is an example of a Red bean 95 and bayonet in the Black Saya thread, around page 3 and 5 respectively. There are also examples of 98s with Red bean, but I didn't think to save these since Red bean is a relatively new concept to me (less than five years anyway) and 98s don't hold more than a passing interest. 

[ChrisW]

Thank you Steve! Much appreciated.

Does the color affect value in any form or does it still carry standard value?

He was telling me he believes that the sword is a concentration camp guard sword (likely because the original owner told them that) but there is no way to verify this information that I know of since the original owner is long since passed I assume.

[Bruce Pennington]

The rare color and the semi rare Seki stamp on a copper fuchi would both add or increase the value to me.

[Shamsy]

11 hours ago, ChrisW said:

Does the color affect value in any form or does it still carry standard value?

...there is no way to verify this information that I know of since the original owner is long since passed I assume.

 

Unless you found a collector who really wants an example of a saya in Red bean, no effect on price I'm afraid. I'd hazard that you won't find anyone in that boat. Things like that don't usually matter to a buyer.

 

Afraid there is no way to verify the origins. Unless there is some sort of documentation, but I wouldn't get your hopes up. Anything you'd likely find would have been with the sword.

[ChrisW]

Alright, thank you! I'll pass that information along.

[BANGBANGSAN]

Type 30 bayonet with red bean paint on both handle&scabbard