Another date inscription

[oli]

Hi,

 

did i read this correct showa 19, 3. month?

 

thanks

Oliver

 

[Bugyotsuji]

昭和十九年 三月 

[oli]

and for Bruce a stamp, but not really readable,

 

Regards

Oli

[Kiipu]

Does this sword have a star stamp by chance?  Maybe Niigata Prefecture タ２１９７?

[oli]

No star stamp only Akihisa on the other side.

[Bruce Pennington]

9 hours ago, oli said:

No star stamp only Akihisa on the other side.

Thanks Oliver!

 

12 hours ago, Kiipu said:

Does this sword have a star stamp by chance?  Maybe Niigata Prefecture タ２１９７?

@Bruce Pennington

I think you're right, Thomas.  I have another of his, same date, タ2374 with star, and was wondering about him making that many blades in the same month - 177 - but I also have a similar situation with him, 201 numbers apart in the same month, the previous year

 

1943, Mar	Niigata	Akihisa (RJT)	松 618 RS star	Schmucker Collection
1943, Mar	Niigata	Akihisa (RJT)	松 819 RS star	Vajo, Trotter Survey

 

So maybe he had a team making blades for him.

[cisco-san]

maybe this helps to find out the date

http://www.jssus.org/ --> Nihonto kanjio pages/Nihonto Kanji/Common Kanji

昭和 - Showa.....  can be found at Nenki & Kuni...

 

lg

Klaus

 

[Bruce Pennington]

2 hours ago, cisco-san said:

find out the date

Thanks Klaus, but we have the date.  It was just deciphering the poorly struck serial number that had any question to it.

[cisco-san]

15 minutes ago, Bruce Pennington said:

Thanks Klaus, but we have the date.  It was just deciphering the poorly struck serial number that had any question to it.

sorry, missed this point!

[george trotter]

2 hours ago, Bruce Pennington said:

Thanks Oliver!

 

I think you're right, Thomas.  I have another of his, same date, タ2374 with star, and was wondering about him making that many blades in the same month - 177 - but I also have a similar situation with him, 201 numbers apart in the same month, the previous year

 

1943, Mar	Niigata	Akihisa (RJT)	松 618 RS star	Schmucker Collection
1943, Mar	Niigata	Akihisa (RJT)	松 819 RS star	Vajo, Trotter Survey

 

So maybe he had a team making blades for him.

Just thought I'd  'chip in' here...

I don't have exact detail on the Niigata RJT system but I do have a good book on the RJT system in adjoining Fukushima (GUNTO KUMIAI SHIMATSU). This book (p.58-59) gives details on the RJT smith outputs and a Fukushima RJT smith called Tsukamoto Masakazu put out the following:

1944 August 14 -Sept.20 = 10 swords

1944 Sept. 20 - Nov. 19 = 25 swords

1944 Nov. 19 - Dec. 29 = 15 swords

1944 Dec. 29 - 1945 Feb. 26 = 12 swords.

This is a total of 62 swords over about 6 months...while the average is about 10/month it can be seen that the total goes up and down quite a bit...maybe due to Tamahagane supply problems etc?.

This being a pretty clear picture of an RJT smith monthly output, it seems to me that the "giant leaps" in tang numbers might be explained by the numbers being put on tangs by the polishing or mounting shops that serviced the smiths' blades...this might show that the particular smiths blades came in "from time to time" and the numbers show the larger quantity of blades that have passed through these shop between each smiths blade arriving?

 

Not sure if this helps at all but it does show that the average smith put out approx. 10 swords / month...maybe this can 'fit' in to the tang numbers seen?

Regards,

George.

 

[Bruce Pennington]

9 minutes ago, george trotter said:

it seems to me that the "giant leaps" in tang numbers might be explained by the numbers being put on tangs by the polishing or mounting shops that serviced the smiths' blades...this might show that the particular smiths blades came in "from time to time" and the numbers show the larger quantity of blades that have passed through these shop between each smiths blade arriving?

 

Not sure if this helps at all but it does show that the average smith put out approx. 10 swords / month...maybe this can 'fit' in to the tang numbers seen?

Good info, George!  Your idea about the numbers sounds quite possible.  So, the guy doing the numbers might have had 200 blades come to his stamping station that month but from several smiths.  I like it!

[george trotter]

It is a possibility Bruce...But, as I am not the messiah...it would be good if one of our 'fluent' Japanese speakers/readers could have a look through some modern Gendaito sources and see if they mention any of the marking procedures of WWII RJT.

Regards...

[cisco-san]

19 hours ago, george trotter said:

Just thought I'd  'chip in' here...

I don't have exact detail on the Niigata RJT system but I do have a good book on the RJT system in adjoining Fukushima (GUNTO KUMIAI SHIMATSU). This book (p.58-59) gives details on the RJT smith outputs and a Fukushima RJT smith called Tsukamoto Masakazu put out the following:

1944 August 14 -Sept.20 = 10 swords

1944 Sept. 20 - Nov. 19 = 25 swords

1944 Nov. 19 - Dec. 29 = 15 swords

1944 Dec. 29 - 1945 Feb. 26 = 12 swords.

This is a total of 62 swords over about 6 months...while the average is about 10/month it can be seen that the total goes up and down quite a bit...maybe due to Tamahagane supply problems etc?.

This being a pretty clear picture of an RJT smith monthly output, it seems to me that the "giant leaps" in tang numbers might be explained by the numbers being put on tangs by the polishing or mounting shops that serviced the smiths' blades...this might show that the particular smiths blades came in "from time to time" and the numbers show the larger quantity of blades that have passed through these shop between each smiths blade arriving?

 

Not sure if this helps at all but it does show that the average smith put out approx. 10 swords / month...maybe this can 'fit' in to the tang numbers seen?

Regards,

George.

 

Isn´t Tsukamoto Masakazu the the youger brother of Tsukmoto Okimasa?! But I might be wrong.

[george trotter]

Almost right Klaus...Okimasa is the younger brother of Masakazu. Although youngest, Okimasa was the first of 4 brothers to become an independent swordsmith c.1939 and he then took his 3 elder brothers as his apprentices...Masakazu becoming independent in 1941. I think all 4 became RJT.

Regards...

[cisco-san]

On 2/16/2024 at 3:50 PM, george trotter said:

Almost right Klaus...Okimasa is the younger brother of Masakazu. Although youngest, Okimasa was the first of 4 brothers to become an independent swordsmith c.1939 and he then took his 3 elder brothers as his apprentices...Masakazu becoming independent in 1941. I think all 4 became RJT.

Regards...

many thanks for clarification, didn´t know it that he has 3 brothers and all were sword smith!