UNUSUAL SHINGUNTO

[Bazza]

G'day All,

This is a continuation of a discussion at viewtopic.php?f=50&t=5959

 

The discussion was about ishime lacquer on gunto scabbards. I thought of a sword I catalogued for an auction here in Oz about 18 months ago. I'd love to have bought it but was financially committed elswhere, so it was bought by someone else. I hope they treasure it because I loved it. The sword is the most unusual Shingunto koshirae I have seen and recorded it for posterity. Anyway, here is my catalog description with the photos following. I hope it is all self-explanatory.

 

Oh, the mei is INSHU JU KANEYUKI. There is no such recorded smith in Hawley or in 18 other books a friend of mine searched, and NO oshigata of any Inshu smith. However, Hawley records smiths in INSHU (Inaba Kuni) from the Kamakura period right to Meiji. I have a spreadsheet of all the smiths in Hawley (I'll try and upload it). It would appear that the Inaba smiths are "backwater" artisans, although a Kamakura period smith is indicated as Juyo.

Best regards,

Barry Thomas.

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KATANA: Shinogi tsukuri, (ridge line & yokote); 69.9cm blade, tang 21.5cm, curvature 2.0cm, thickness 0.70cm; in original Japanese polish (some rust pitting & cleaning at point); itame hada (irregular grain pattern); notare hamon (“long wave” undulating temper pattern) with peaks resembling Mount Fuji; tang in g. orig cond, nice patina & filemarks, incised in nicely cut characters IN SHU JU KANEYUKI. A sound Shinshinto blade ca 1820. Koshirae: WW2 Japanese Army shingunto, the whole complete & g. cond; exc orig, clean brown silk binding to handle; family crest on kabutogane (end handle fitting); g. rayskin (slight cracking); brown silk rank tassel present but badly frayed & worn attached to scabbard hanger (remnant of original silk hanger still in kabutogane). This sword has 3 very unusual features (i) scabbard is finished in true urushi (lacquer) in russet-brown (slight scuffing & cracking); (ii) scabbard mouth has an additional protective collar to keep out dust & moisture; (iii) on each side of the handle between rayskin & wood core is a thin strip of silver or nickel-plated iron. Clearly this unique sword was of special significance to its wartime owner.

$2500 - 3000

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[george trotter]

Barry san,

thanks for this interesting post...I can see why you drooled! I have seen the koiguchi with "dust cover" before, but not with the extension on the scabbard . I have however seen the metal plates fitted beneath the hilt same before and from memory the blade and fittings were well above average. This feature was offered by one of the WWII Japanese sword shops (Wakase Co. of Tokyo see Slough page 258-259), as a necessary improvement, for all officers requiring hilt strength in a fighting situation. I THINK I also read about these strengthening plates in an advert in "Dai Nihon Token Shoko Meikan" 1942 ...available from Dr Jinsoo Kim's site...and very interesting too, but as most of my books are in storage (building) I can't check.

 

Keep up the good work,

Regards,

George.

[Ted Tenold]

I also have seen the metal reinforcment plates under the samegawa before. I've also seen a variation of reinforcement that was done with copper strips formed and fitted under the samegawa on the ha and mune of the tsuka rather than the hira. Quite interesting.

 

The dust cover at the koiguchi is a very interesting variant. I haven't see that before. These are quite obviously high grade mountings. Just as an observation, I suspect the handle has been rewrapped.