A survey of markings on Suya Shoten swords

[PNSSHOGUN]

Two recent swords have piqued my curiosity around the markings found on swords of the Suya Shoten company, namely the following:

 

• Kanji, Katakana or Japanese numbers scratched into the Seppa, Tsuba and Fuchi
• Small ink stamp/writing in Kanji underneath the Fuchi

 

The curious part is the difference in these ink stamps, so far there have been two noted variations.

 

嶋田 - Shimada

柄順 - roughly "pattern order"

 

These swords share the following in common:

 

• 1930's dated Type 94 pattern mounts
• Mon
• Good blades
• Characters (surname, Japanese numbers, swordsmith)

 

So I ask those collectors with Suya stamped swords, (or swords with ink stamps under the Fuchi) to please check if any of the above are on your swords and report the below details in this thread.

 

• Date of sword (if known)
• Blade
• Mon present
• Any other unique features

 

 

 

[Nicholas]

Is this what you’re looking for?         Yasumitsu 1942

[Nicholas]

[Tensho]

Not sure if this is of interest,  but this is whats on my Zohei-to that I thought was a fake blade. I asked about a while back. No Mon, or ink stampings but has a cord sarute. 

[Bruce Pennington]

Interesting already!  Man after my own heart, John!

Matt has 358 マ

 

I have these two on file, but don't have the blade or anything else they came with and "エ" up by the Suya stamp:

162 マ

 

This set is numbered but I can't see any kana

[Bruce Pennington]

John,

Probably too early in the survey to tell, but don't you think it's an interesting "coincidence" with these "MA" numbers and the one you've posted on the translation forum with "マツサキ - Matsusaki"?  What if the "MA" series numbers were made by Matsusaki?  Seems too coincidental.

[PNSSHOGUN]

Hi Bruce, Matsusaki will be a surname related to the officer. The other fittings like this follow the same trend, along with fittings by other makers. On occasion this has been confirmed by surrender tags or other identifiers that match the officers surname with what is written on the fittings.

[Bryce]

G'day John,

Here is mine again. It is a 1938 Gassan Sadakatsu blade, with Gassan habaki and tachibana mon on kabutogane. I think the markings translate as short for "Gassan 2" and "special 2"?

Cheers,

Bryce

 

[BANGBANGSAN]

On 10/30/2023 at 4:38 AM, Bryce said:

G'day John,

Here is mine again. It is a 1938 Gassan Sadakatsu blade, with Gassan habaki and tachibana mon on kabutogane. I think the markings translate as short for "Gassan 2" and "special 2"?

Cheers,

Bryce

 

 

 

 

The hiragana written in white paint appears to resemble the pronunciation of '特二' (トク二)。

[Bryce]

G'day Trystan,

I agree. I took it as confirmation that I was reading the scratched kanji correctly. It is written in the same gold paint the fuchi is decorated with. I assume this means it was done when the fuchi was painted. There doesn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary about the koshirae, so I wonder what the '特二' is referring to? Could it be referring to the "Gassan" habaki?

Cheers,

Bryce

[Volker62]

yasukuni to

 

yasuyoshi

 

march 1942

[Volker62]

[Volker62]

ultra rare extra long 69,9 cm nagasa papered Kajiyama Yasutoshi

 

 

[Karu]

Lovely, can we see photos of the blade ?

[Volker62]

Carl with pleasure.

 

please enjoy, this is an extraordinary highest quality blade,super rare to find.

 

 

 

Kajiyama Yasutoshi Nagasa 69,9 cm with NBTHK Koshirae with Mon blade housed in shirasaya original war time first polish

[Volker62]

[Karu]

Beautiful, thanks. 

I haven't seen a lot of Yasutoku's son Yasutoshi, thats a very nice exemple. 

[Volker62]

Have seen so far :

 

4 long sword's (Tachi)

 

1 Tanto

 

 here on the board one Tachi, which is located in France

 

 

I would benice to see more blades by kajiyama Yasutoshi here on the board, especially complete with it's original Koshirae like this one.

 

 

obiviously not many collector's own one of his swords here on the web???

 

 

Han bing Siong told me many years ago, that he has looking for it, without succsess......