Officer Type 98 with Type 95 Blade

[Bruce Pennington]

This topic is discussed all over the place as folks post their swords, but I'd like a dedicated thread we can refer to.  I've come across a penultimate example of the style on this Wehrmacht-award Thread.

 

This gunto was clearly (now in 2023) an NCO blade that was bought by an officer and fitted out appropriately for his use.
About the shortage: https://www.warrelic...blades-gunto-688110/
About buying 95s:
"1937 Officers had to make do with Type 95 NCO swords due to a worsening shortage

The only shortage problem that Ohmura-san’s site refers to is the long ago case of 1931/32 when shortages of officer swords required the arsenal to sell prototype type 91 NCO swords to officers. He failed to notice that by 1937 new officers found that they could not get hold of any swords to complete their outfits as per regulations. So in desperation, they turned to the arsenal, asking that they be allowed to purchase the Type 95 NCO swords as a substitute. On 29th July 1937, their request was granted and it was agreed to let them buy Type 95s at a price of 33 Yen a piece. They were to fill in the private purchase application forms as provided in the July 1937 memo and apply to Kokura or the Tokyo Arsenal directly with the money. Not only officers in the field, but also vets back home were allowed to buy these NCO swords. The army thus ended up with many officers equipped with the wrong swords.
Here is the July 1937 application for officers to purchase their Type 95 NCO swords. Part one was the request to buy and the other sheet was a note promising to pay the 33 Yen by the date to be designated by the arsenal. One required the unit commander’s signature and signet or when one was a veteran, that of the regimental district commander.
We now know there were a couple of severe sword shortages during the war and, thanks to Nick Komiya's records work, we now know that officers were allowed to buy, even rent, NCO swords for their use. We have, for years, assumed these blades were re-fitted post-war by collectors, but the matching numbers "71" on the nakago and the fittings confirm this was a wartime rig. Only NCO blades bore serial numbers, just to clear up some of the older discussion points." Source:  Authorization to Buy Type 95s

 

You can see the rig was made this way, with "71" stamped on the nakago as well as on the fittings.  Also, for research purposes, note the triple "W".  The OP doesn't show the whole gunto, or the saya, but describes them as standard Type 98 in his first post.

[Bruce Pennington]

I forgot about this thread until Sam - @Scogg - came up with another example.  The early (copper handle era) number on this one and another from @Stegel falls inline with the era discussed in Nick Komiya's discussion.  I don't know what date range the one on the OP phots falls in, but there were shortages throughout the war that would have caused a young officer to resort to this way of obtaining a sword.

 

Sam's find:

 

Stegel's gunto

 

 

 

[Bruce Pennington]

More from the files:

 

Posted by @The_Derz

 

[Bruce Pennington]

This was in Plimton's book.  No blade shown:

 

This one leads into the group of gunto with varing amounts of mixed officer/NCO parts.  I've seen several NCO blades with 95 tsuka/tsuba in officer saya, like this on from Plimpton.

 

More puzzling are the Type 95s with signed blades that would normally be in officer fittings. I have 2 of these on file.  Personally, though, I'd be more likely to believe these were custom blades paid for by an NCO with money, who wanted a quality blade in his rig.  The shortages that drove officers to buy Type 95s were blade shortages, not fittings shortages.

 

An example:

Masatsugu, Jun 1945, posted by @drb 1643

 

Another Masatsugu, April 1945 from @mdiddy

 

 

[Scogg]

Thank you Bruce! I would have thought this were a frankensword if the fittings weren’t so well fitted. But also, the hashmarks found on the spine of the nakago and on the habaki (5 and 1), match the numbered fittings (51).

 

Nakago also has TO stamp, and blade is numbered 857. 
 

Pretty interesting!

-Sam 

 

 

[BANGBANGSAN]

On 6/25/2023 at 4:56 AM, Bruce Pennington said:

This topic is discussed all over the place as folks post their swords, but I'd like a dedicated thread we can refer to.  I've come across a penultimate example of the style on this Wehrmacht-award Thread.

 

This gunto was clearly (now in 2023) an NCO blade that was bought by an officer and fitted out appropriately for his use.

 

You can see the rig was made this way, with "71" stamped on the nakago as well as on the fittings.  Also, for research purposes, note the triple "W".  The OP doesn't show the whole gunto, or the saya, but describes them as standard Type 98 in his first post.

@Bruce Pennington

OP's sword is a later Zoheito with a solid tsuba. Please take a close look: the NCO blade with serial number 133859 was posted by Stu as a reference to show OP what a standard NCO blade looks like. Later, Silesien posted his blade, which has no serial number. Most importantly, it has only one mekugi-ana.

[Bruce Pennington]

21 minutes ago, BANGBANGSAN said:

Zoheito

Good catch Trystan.  I’ll have to correct my files.