AndrewM Posted July 24, 2012 Report Posted July 24, 2012 Hello, I'm very new to swords and despite weeks of searching the net I have failed to find out anything of substance about a WW2 Japanese sword that I recently picked up. Any help, information or advice to help me learn more about this sword would be very gratefully recieved. The scabbard has a brown leather field cover and appears very similar to many I have seen on the internet, except the blade seems shorter than average. (30 1/4" in total, 22" from tip to "notch"). I assume it is a war time factory produced example. There are some Japanese characters engraved on either side of the rear portion, however some are obscured by rust. I'm curious if anyone can tranlate these characters and for any thoughts on the shorter length. Many thanks for having a look. Andrew All parts stamped 126 Quote
SwordGuyJoe Posted July 25, 2012 Report Posted July 25, 2012 I believe the mei is Hidenobu listed as a seki smith: http://home.earthlink.net/~ttstein/seki.htm. Cant tell on the date. Quote
mdiddy Posted July 25, 2012 Report Posted July 25, 2012 Andrew, Here are a couple of websites that may provide add'l useful info: 1. http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/military.htm 2. http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/nihonto.htm 3. http://www.h4.dion.ne.jp/~t-ohmura/gunto_002.htm To add to what Joe has already told you, your blade was handmade, but probably mass-produced. It could be shorter for a variety of reasons. I would think it may have been made for someone operating in a cramped environment like a tank officer. Matt Quote
AndrewM Posted July 26, 2012 Author Report Posted July 26, 2012 Matt & Joe, many thanks for taking the time to reply and sharing your wisdom. Its great to put a name to the mei, hopefully I can try to reseach this a bit further. Intresting point about a possible reason for the shorter length being linked to a confined space. I'd appreciate any help with translating the date, but appreciate the difficulty in reading the symbols due to rust. Thanks again to everyone, this forum is a fantastic resource for guys like me to try and learn a little more. Andrew Quote
AndrewM Posted July 27, 2012 Author Report Posted July 27, 2012 Hi Joe, my lack of photography skills and the obscuring rust make this a challenge, but I appreciate your assistance. Andrew Quote
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