Mismatched

[Donzi1973]

Why did some Japanese swords mismatched or married together I have an navy and Army sword , with old hardware and has an family crest on the handle and on the scabbard, is simari and Navy

[Bruce Pennington]

Hi Donny!  Can you give us a look at the nakago (tang)?

 

There are a couple of options to answer your question.

1. Army blade came out of Japan after the war without a saya (scabbard), and a collector found a saya to fit it.

2. The single haikan (hanger ring) is indicative of a late-war navy rig.  Some people speculate that some swords got pieced together with whatever could be scavenged in the last stage of the war.  I tend to not buy this version, but who can know.

 

The civil tsuba (handguard) MAY indicate there is an older family blade in there.  Seeing the nakago could be informative.

[vajo]

Tsuba is heianjo with famous mon. The boars eye seppa didn't fit to the tsuba. It looks assembled together. 

[Guest Simon R]

Why on earth would it have a slot for a kozuka???

[Bruce Pennington]

8 hours ago, SRDRowson said:

Why on earth would it have a slot for a kozuka???

Exactly!!!  The saya, alone, puzzles me greatly.  If it were a post-war bitser, and a guy had grabbed a civil saya and put navy hardware on it, why would he have cut a slot for the kozuka in the koiguchi? only then, to fill it with a patch of metal???  On the other hand, if it were a legit late-war kaigunto saya, and they used a civil saya, why wouldn't they have just put a normal koiguchi on it?  The Navy koiguchi cut for a kozuka is the real puzzlement.  

[Stephen]

Can we say Franknsword?