Arsenal Stamps.

[Kiipu]

興亞 = 興亜 = kōa = development of Asia.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/興亜

[Bruce Pennington]

Ok!  You guys almost had me fired up with a new, undiscovered hotstamp......... BUT, Turns out this is the "Koa Token Sha" hotstamp.  They were a company founded by a group of retired servicemen to support the war effort.  It was the parent company of the Seki Nihon To Tan Ren Jo of which Amahide (Hideyoshi san) was president.

Ref Slough:

 

So far, I've only seen them on Amahide blades.  The second kanji is Very slightly different from the Koa of the Koa Isshin slogan.

[Bruce Pennington]

Here's a comparison:

[Kiipu]

The same character, just old versus new style.

亞 = 亜

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/亞

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/亜

[Bruce Pennington]

9 minutes ago, Kiipu said:

The same character, just old versus new style.

亞 = 亜

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/亞

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/亜

Ok.  So, sounds like we are probably both right.  The "Koa" is a reference to the "Asia United" slogan, while the use of it in the hotstamp was something representing the Retiree war support group.

[Kiipu]

A little infographic just for Bruce!

Amahide, Post #14

[Bruce Pennington]

14 minutes ago, Kiipu said:

infographic

BINGO!  You are truly amazing Thomas! [hmm, can't find that Bowing emoticon!!!]

 

[Bruce Pennington]

On 8/5/2020 at 11:44 PM, Bruce Pennington said:

Breaking news on late-war Type 95 stamps in a circle!  Often seen on Jinsen made blades, they are an empty circle, a circle with 1, 2, or 3 horizontal lines inside, and they are Category marks for fitness for combat.  The circle with 2 lines is a down-grade, "not for combat use", but can be used for training, schools, etc.  

Comes from new revelations on Warrelics, here:  

https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/Japanese-militaria/evolution-Japanese-army-steel-helmet-1918-1945-revised-expanded-version-589930-11/

Here is a blade with the Jinsen "He" and beside it is a circle with 2 lines.

Update to the update!

Nick Komiya in his Rinji Seishiki to Daiyou Seishiki Weapons Specs thread has uncovered specific documents detailing the conversion of this Clause 2 stamp to mean "Article 2 of this regulation defined Daiyo-Seishiki-Heiki as “weapons in specifications employing substitute materials in its component(s) or redesigned to conserve materials" or more succinctly "Substitute-Spec Weapons".

 

This makes more sense for the late-war Type 95s we have seen this stamp on.  The wording will be fixed on this stamp in the upcoming Stamps of the Japanese Sword, ver. 8.7 this September.

[Bruce Pennington]

Stamps of the Japanese Sword ver 8.7 now available.  Thanks @Brian!

 

Changes:

- A few more hotstamps and kao

- A interesting engraved image of Daikokuten, a god, found by @robinalexander, posted HERE

- Corrected the definition of the circled "Ni" stamp to mean "made with non-spec materials"

- Corrected the kana + numbers map

- Biggest change was the addition of cut tester kao from @Markus' fine book "Tameshigiri, The HIstory and Development of Japanese Sword Testing".  Thanks Markus!!!

- 5 shop stamps from kyugunto, seppa, and a blade added to the "Unknown" category

[robinalexander]

Bruce & others will have this question done and dusted pretty quickly I imagine.

 

I'm in the process of cataloging and I came across this stamp on the blade of a late war Type 95.  

 

I dont know if its been badly struck or not....its seems clear but I cant see it in Bruce's great 'Stamps' download and couldnt readily find it in the Arsenal Stamps thread.

 

Any clues?

 

Tks Rob

[BANGBANGSAN]

35 minutes ago, robinalexander said:

Bruce & others will have this question done and dusted pretty quickly I imagine.

 

I'm in the process of cataloging and I came across this stamp on the blade of a late war Type 95.  

 

I dont know if its been badly struck or not....its seems clear but I cant see it in Bruce's great 'Stamps' download and couldnt readily find it in the Arsenal Stamps thread.

 

Any clues?

 

Tks Rob

 

It's a 関 mark used by Nagoya arsenal 関監督班(Seki inspection team)，  stamped sideway.

 

[robinalexander]

Der....thanks Trystan. Clearly dosn't take much to confuse me 

 

Have you seen many sideways?  Or is that something that is more prevelent on late war blades?

 

Rob

 

[BANGBANGSAN]

31 minutes ago, robinalexander said:

Der....thanks Trystan. Clearly dosn't take much to confuse me 

 

Have you seen many sideways?  Or is that something that is more prevelent on late war blades?

 

Rob

 

There are a quite a few late-war blade stamps sloppy. Double strike, half stamped, over stamped, crooked, etc

[Kiipu]

「関伝日本刀鍛錬技術保存会」井戸誠嗣会長のご協力により、昭和１５年、当時の関町が発行した「刀都関」誌に、『 関刃物工業組合の厳重な検査に合格した刀身に「桜花に昭字」の刻印が打たれ、実用刀として天下無敵の好評を博している 』との記述が発見された。

 

With the cooperation of Ido Seiji 井戸･誠嗣, Chairman of the “Seki-Den Japanese Sword Forging Technique Preservation Society” 関伝日本刀鍛錬技術保存会, a description was found in "Tōto Seki" 刀都関, published by the Town of Seki in 1940, that said “The blade has passed the strict inspection of the "Seki Cutlery Manufacturers’ Society" 関刃物工業組合 and is stamped with “Sakurabana ni Shō ji” 桜花に昭字, and has gained an unrivaled reputation as a practical sword.”

Source: 関・軍用日本刀

 

刀都関 = can be pronounced as either Tōto Seki or Katana no Miyako, Seki.

桜花に昭字 = Shō 昭 character within a cherry blossom.  Nick states that it would be better to write it as either 桜の花に昭の字 or 桜の花に昭和の昭の字.

 

[Bruce Pennington]

So to summarize:  We now have a quote from a 1940 Japanese magazine article that clearly states that the Seki Cutlery Manufacturers Association was using the Showa stamp!  (sigh) my Stamps doc 8.7 already needs updating!  But that's a good problem to have, as we now know for a fact that SCMA was using the Showa stamp!  Up to now, we really couldn't prove that, and it could have been some sort of Army acceptance stamp. 

 

Nice find, Thomas!  You have personally been a National Treasure to our growing collective knowledge of the Japanese gunto.

 

We still have a seeming conflict concerning the use of the Showa and Seki stamps.  Ohmura sites a 1939 inventory of SCMA stamped blades that notes that the numbers don't include traditionally made blades "as they were not inspected"; while the Seki City website history claims that "all Japanese swords were inspected."

[Bruce Pennington]

@mecox

Mal, love your latest missive on the Ehime smiths!  But you sure make a lot of work for me!!! Ha!, good kind of work, though.

 

The photos of Sadatsugu are a new category where a smith has both a kao (kakihan) and a hotstamp (kokuin)!  Dang!

 

Have you any insight to the kanji in the hotstamp?  These often are kanji from the smith's name, but in this case, it doesn't seem to be close to anything in his name.  I have a 1938 one of his with the same kao, stamp, and a Buddhist bonji from Slough, pg 154.  Could it be something religious oriented?  He said it says "Ryu O".

 

 

[BANGBANGSAN]

龍王

29 minutes ago, Bruce Pennington said:

@mecox

Mal, love your latest missive on the Ehime smiths!  But you sure make a lot of work for me!!! Ha!, good kind of work, though.

 

The photos of Sadatsugu are a new category where a smith has both a kao (kakihan) and a hotstamp (kokuin)!  Dang!

 

Have you any insight to the kanji in the hotstamp?  These often are kanji from the smith's name, but in this case, it doesn't seem to be close to anything in his name.  I have a 1938 one of his with the same kao, stamp, and a Buddhist bonji from Slough, pg 154.  Could it be something religious oriented?  He said it says "Ryu O".

 

  

龍王 -Dragon King

[PNSSHOGUN]

Where can I find this article on Ehime smiths?

[Kiipu]

What Trystan said above except Mal used "Dragon Prince" instead.  Bruce, read page 10 for the explanation.

龍王 = Ryūō = Dragon King/Prince/Monarch/etc.

@mecox

[Bruce Pennington]

1 hour ago, PNSSHOGUN said:

Where can I find this article on Ehime smiths?

John,

Mal removed the article to fix a couple errors.  I suspect he'll re-post soon.

 

1 hour ago, Kiipu said:

What Trystan said above except Mal used "Dragon Prince" instead.  Bruce, read page 10 for the explanation.

龍王 = Ryūō = Dragon King/Prince/Monarch/etc.

@mecox

Ah, found it!  But Mal said "Ryūōshi (龍王子)"  Does the "shi" add something?

[Kiipu]

24 minutes ago, Bruce Pennington said:

But Mal said "Ryūōshi (龍王子)"  Does the "shi" add something?

 

Sadatsugu inscribed 龍王子 on some of the tangs and this translates as "dragon prince."  This is probably why Mal translated 龍王 as "dragon prince."

王子 = ōji = prince.

[mecox]

Bruce and Kiipu,  following advice of my Japanese speaker;

some of his mei read "Ryūōshi   龍王子"   and in this context shi means child of king = prince.

in his kokuin the 2 kanji are "龍王 = Ryūō" as noted which appears to cover all King/Prince/Monarch/etc. .  Maybe its an abbreviation.

But we chose to go with "prince" in the general overall discussion.

[Bruce Pennington]

Fabulous!  Thanks guys, Trystan, Thomas, and Mal.

 

I think this one will have to get a bit larger section in the Stamps doc, if you don’t mind me quoting your article, Mal.

[Kiipu]

On 2/15/2022 at 6:23 AM, Bruce Pennington said:

I have a Masakazu marked "フ 37" with Star, in RS fittings, but no date.  It was likely made in '43 or '44.

 

Do you have a link or picture of this marking?

[george trotter]

Hi Thomas,

Here is an oshigata of the Masakazu tang marked 'Fu' 37.

It is signed "Iwashiro ju Masakazu" and has the RJT star. I'm not sure if it was in RS fittings, but it does have two ana.

It was published in "Gunto Kumiai Shimatsu - Rikugun Jumei Tosho no Shuen" 1994 in Aizu Pref. (shown in frontispiece).

 

I think I gave Bruce the details but maybe not the pic.

 

Hope this helps...

[Bruce Pennington]

Yes, that's the one I have. 

[Kiipu]

Thanks George.  So this is what we have then.  Iwashiro 岩代 is located in Fukushima Prefecture so it would have fallen under the RJT jurisdiction of Tōkyō 1st Arsenal.  Production was small as they would have started with no prefix to the serial number and then added the katakana character FU フ later on.  Yet this sword is only numbered at 37 and already has the prefix.  Kinda like Hokkaidō 北海道 then, in that limited production took place in the prefecture.

☆　岩代住正和　フ３７ = ☆　Iwashiro jū Masakazu　FU37

Iwashiro, Fukushima

[Kiipu]

On 10/7/2019 at 6:20 AM, BANGBANGSAN said:

Found a 松 mark on gunto tang. It's in the stamp chart.

viii. ‘Matsu’ stamp found associated with tang batch or issue numbers. Significance unknown.

 

Trystan, on the sword with the 松97 marking, do you any additional information about the date and swordsmith's name?

 

The 松 stamp was used as a prefix by both Nagano 長野縣 and Niigata 新潟県 prefectures before the switch to タ and ナ in late 1943.

[BANGBANGSAN]

3 hours ago, Kiipu said:

 

Trystan, on the sword with the 松97 marking, do you any additional information about the date and swordsmith's name?

 

The 松 stamp was used as a prefix by both Nagano 長野縣 and Niigata 新潟県 prefectures before the switch to タ and ナ in late 1943.

I‘m sorry Thomas, I don't remember where I got it.I will let you know If I ever see it again...

[Bruce Pennington]

One for @Stegel & @Shamsy

Probably not unusual to you guys, but a guy I know has this Suya Shoten 95 with an additional TO stamp on the back side of the fuchi.  I think I've seen that done before, but found it interesting.