RobCarter3 Posted August 23 Report Posted August 23 Greetings all, I acquired this Type 94 mounted sword recently with an extended ishizuke. Usually these have the same markings and the patent number "213917," associated with the Wakase shop in Tokyo. F & G say that "all examples found ... have identical markings." Well, here's one that's different -- in both shape and markings. One side appears to have an abbreviated version of the usual Wakase script, the other side is unmarked. There is no patent number. There are no stamps, markings, writings or logos on any of the other fittings, including the under the fuchi, other than some "roman numeral" style scratches on the seppa and tsuba. 1 1 Quote
RobCarter3 Posted August 23 Author Report Posted August 23 The blade is signed "Hizen Kuni Ju Fujiwara [Kane?]hiro" Quote
RobCarter3 Posted August 23 Author Report Posted August 23 I will be sending the sword off to have the tsuka restored. Reportedly this was picked up by a Royal Engineers officer after the Battle of Imphal, but there's no documentation so take the story as you will. As always, your honest impressions are appreciated. 1 Quote
lonely panet Posted August 23 Report Posted August 23 its a different shape due to wear and tear, contact/ dragged along the ground etc. the sword, ill leave the hizen guys to comment. and i would discribe this as a early type 98, the type 94's have a more tachi like sori at the tsuba/habaki area to F/G's book, there good but they sometimes get it wrong. im a personal friend of one of the contributors of all the F/G books and does dissagree with some of the things written. Dawsons has surpassed them as the bible of IJ swords and information just my 10 cents worth Quote
RobCarter3 Posted August 23 Author Report Posted August 23 While there's certainly wear on the piece I don't think that accounts for all of the differences in shape. The drag is wider than the ishizuke on this one, with different terminations. Also, on others, the sakura leaf stamping is visible over the extended drag. On this sword, the extended drag is attached over the sakura stamping, suggesting a different method of construction. I still think it's a different part. I'm not trying to assign any real significance to it, I just thought it was interesting. I agree wholeheartedly that Dawson's Cyclopedia Edition is the bible. But I don't think Dawson's covers this particular quirk of Type 94/98 koshirae. 1 Quote
Michaelr Posted August 24 Report Posted August 24 To me it looks like the bottom ( patt. Part ) looks like it was a separate piece and added on. It just dosent look like it fits correctly and the dimensions look off. As always pictures sometimes don’t tell the whole thing and as always this is just my two cents. Thank you for sharing MikeR Quote
PNSSHOGUN Posted August 24 Report Posted August 24 Appears to be a Type 94 of good quality, this may be the very first iteration of the patented drag. Interesting find. 1 Quote
lonely panet Posted August 24 Report Posted August 24 thats the good thing about this forum, diffenent eyes have different opionions and are all good points 3 Quote
Kiipu Posted August 29 Report Posted August 29 On 8/23/2024 at 8:58 AM, RobCarter3 said: One side appears to have an abbreviated version of the usual Wakase script, the other side is unmarked. 新案特許 Shin'an tokkyo Patent on a new device. 1 Quote
Bruce Pennington Posted August 29 Report Posted August 29 10 hours ago, Kiipu said: 新案特許 Shin'an tokkyo Patent on a new device. Interesting that they mentioned a patent but didn't put the number. Do you know if they had the practiced, like we do today, of marking something simply as "Patented"? Quote
Kiipu Posted August 29 Report Posted August 29 5 hours ago, Bruce Pennington said: Do you know if they had the practiced, like we do today, of marking something simply as "Patented"? Maybe your thinking of the following stamp(s). Arsenal Stamps. Quote
Bruce Pennington Posted August 29 Report Posted August 29 Seems like they are both saying the same thing "This item is patented". Quote
RobCarter3 Posted November 5 Author Report Posted November 5 Sword is back from tsuka restoration. Very pleased with how it turned out. I added a company grade tassel from my parts bin. 1 Quote
Bruce Pennington Posted November 6 Report Posted November 6 Excellent! What a difference. You gave your Gunto new life. 1 Quote
PNSSHOGUN Posted November 6 Report Posted November 6 A small observation regarding Wakase fittings is they often have Tsumami-Maki style Ito. Quote
RobCarter3 Posted November 6 Author Report Posted November 6 1 hour ago, PNSSHOGUN said: A small observation regarding Wakase fittings is they often have Tsumami-Maki style Ito. John, you got me scared that I messed this up, so I searched the forum for swords where both the Wakase patent ishizuke and ito are visible and found a mix of tsumami-maki and hineri-maki on posted examples. From the small sample size, the tsumami-maki seems to be more common on kai gunto, and the hineri-maki more common on army swords. I noticed that most of the army swords have what Ohmura calls the "Kashira-Kakemaki" style of binding stop. All I know about how my sword was originally wrapped is that the menuki placement was standard (you could see where they were) and that it was not kashira-kakemaki style because there was no hole through the tsuka. So I'm reassured that my restoration is at least "historically plausible." Tsumami-maki #1, #2, #3, #4, Hineri-maki #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7 High-end katate-maki outlier 2 Quote
PNSSHOGUN Posted November 6 Report Posted November 6 No need for alarm, there are plenty of examples with "regular" Ito-Maki as well. If you had to do it all over again, the Tsumami-Maki is a bit nicer (for my tastes). 1 Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.