Translation assistance on this Katana . And other considerations / concerns

[Eds]

Looking for help with the translation of the symbols on the tang.  Also this sword has a canvas wrap on the rather than Ray Skin.  This concerns me but may not be a concern.  Thoughts?

 

Arsenal stamp?

[PNSSHOGUN]

光永作 (Mitsunaga Saku) 野口 平 一  a Seki Kaji Tosho. This is a stainless steel blade. The canvas wrap isn't anything to be concerned about, there were many Samegawa alternatives used in the last years of the war.

[Bruce Pennington]

Ed,

This is one of the 8,000+ souvenir swords made by the Tenshozan factory of the Toyokawa Navy Arsenal, after the war.  You can read all about this on this document:

 

  On 8/2/2022 at 4:21 AM, PNSSHOGUN said:

光永作 (Mitsunaga Saku) 野口 平 一  a Seki Kaji Tosho.

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John, are you saying that Mitsunaga worked for, and made this blade, at the Seki Kaji Tosho?  If so, this would add evidence to the idea that Tenzoshan was using available surplus blades, and therefore, this blade was really made for the war.

[PNSSHOGUN]

No, he's simply listed as a Seki Kaji Tosho.  http://www.jp-sword.com/files/seki/gendaito.html

 

  Quote

"During WWII, more than 200 swordsmiths worked only at Seki province to supply qualified swords for their soldiers.  Their names began to appear in Seki Tanrensho Booklet printed in 1939.  Several smiths in this list worked as Rikugun Jumei Tosho (e.g. Nakata Kanehide) and produced both good and poor blades together. However, most of these seki smiths produced low grade Showato and should not be regarded as a Gendaito.  The list shows their smith name and real name."

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[Eds]

John and Bruce

 

Cant thank you enough!  Great information and I especially like the links and the treatise on the post war swords produced for souvenirs for the Army PX.  Very in depth.  My father had German nazi war items from WWII that look authentic but are stamped "souvenir" which would make you wonder if they were real and stamped souvenir to skirt export or war price prohibitions.  

 

With that said, there were a couple things that made me scratch my head about this Katana.  One was the atypical Tsuba as mentioned and the other is the lack of a locking mechanism for the blade such as a snap or locking latch.  

 

Also makes you wonder if these post war Japanese pristine / unused swords have any real value.

[Alban L]

This kind of tsuba is often seen on end of war Kai Guntos, no problem at all. Also lacquered saya rather than sharkskin, and a stainless steel blade as indicated by the navy acceptance stamp. Not a traditionnal Nihonto but still a beautiful military sword !

 

Bruce, how can we tell it's a post war sword and not a late war one ? Is it because of the Mei ?

I'll read your document, thanks for sharing.

[DTM72]

eBay seller sent me an offer to buy this at a reduced price. My concern is that all the photos of the hamon show that it is a suguha hamon, but one photo shows a notare (Wavy) hamon. It may be that the seller accidentally mixed another photo in with the correct photos. Just something to keep in mind on the eBay battlefield.

 

Dan

[ROKUJURO]

As far as I know, these stainless steel blades had no real HAMON but a 'brushed' SUGUHA - like zone along the cutting edge.  Looks as if the seller mixed a photo of a nice authentic HAMON purely accidentally in....

[Bruce Pennington]

  On 8/2/2022 at 2:51 PM, Alban L said:

how can we tell it's a post war sword

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A number of ways. All the metal fittings are army in design, but the color of the sword is navy. The color of the wrap is the standard color of the souvenir. Also the fuchi is one piece with the seppa. Everything about this matches the mixed design of Army Navy sword used in the souvenir.  The only thing different about this one is that the metal fittings are not gold gilded.  But it is a navy stainless steel blade in army metal fittings with navy color Ito and scabbard.

 

 

 

[PNSSHOGUN]

The one thing that stands out is the Navy Kabutogane and Semagane, the Saya almost looks like Sharkskin as well but hard to tell from the photos. A full shot of the mountings will clear it all up.

[Bruce Pennington]

Well, hrumphh!  @Eds and @Alban L - Have to make a retraction!!!

 

I was looking at this on the run, and on my phone.  After getting home, I have to say I was wrong about the fittings.  All the fittings are Navy.  The ito is still that end-of-the-war icky color, and @PNSSHOGUN's comment about the same' being something other than canvas puts me on the fence about that too.  I still think it's likely canvas, but with these photos it's hard to say.

 

SOooooo..... I'm backtracking to this likely being very late war kaigunto. 

 

Sorry about the earlier posts.

[Alban L]

@Bruce Pennington, yes I think it may be a late war sword, cannot be 100% sure it was produced soon enough to be used in operations but it looks ok for me, army style fittings were used on late navy swords, as well as low quality canvas on tsuka rather than black same (even raw lacquered wood was used). But like you pointed, green wrap is typical of army sword, I don't know if it's original on navy sword. If it's a recent one it could be replaced by a brown wrap.