Need Help Identifying part 2 of 2

[tiarnol]

I am an anthropology student who is doing a museum display case full of Japanese swords and i am needing some assistance in identifying some of them. All of these swords are from our university museum. I have been doing some research and i think i have two army kyu-gunto sabers or army parade sabers? This is what i have narrowed them down to, but i am not sure if i'm even close. How do i go about figuring out what time period i'm dealing with if these sabers turn out to be parade swords?

There is a silver flower emblem on the handles of both the kyu-gunto swords and i'm not sure what it represents. I would appreciate any help i can get! Thank you so much! Also, any suggestions you might have are very welcome!

~Tiffany

[Stephen]

  Quote

and i think i have two army kyu-gunto sabers or army parade sabers? T

they are both parade sabers.

here is a link to study on military swords

http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/nihonto.htm

[Grey Doffin]

Hi Tiffany,

Don't clean the swords; don't fix the swords; keep them in a dry environment so they won't corrode. Nihonto that get donated to museums that don't specialize in Nihonto often get damaged by well meaning but unknowing curators. If you don't know what you're supposed to do, don't do anything.

Obvious, I know, and you probably didn't need to hear that, but strange stuff happens to Japanese swords sometimes in museums.

The small silver tab on the handle of one of these is a mon: a family crest representing the family of the man who wore the sword to war. The time period for all 3 swords, the NCO and 2 parade sabres, is WWII.

Grey