Japanese Sword

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weblet445

Joined
Aug 14, 2005
Messages
9
A new friend a work told me he had a very old Japanese sword. let me borrow it to see if we could get any ifo on it. To be honest I think he was given some bull when he bought it (late 80's). only notable thing is some script (Kanji?) written on the metal under the grip.
Figured I'd post a pic and see if any one could shed some light on it. Sorry for the quality, did the best I could.

sword.jpg


Also included the guard (tsuba?). I have no idea what material it is made of, he said it was cast iron.

There is some weight to the blade and it did a number on my computer chair when it slipped out of my hand and fell tip first into the cushion whle I was removing the handle. Would'nt want to get smacked with it. Of course the main motivation here is that my bud wants to get an idea of current value as he wants to sell it.
 
Very little doubt that it is genuine, however, it doesnt look special. There are probably thousands of WWII pieces floating out there in various conditions. They arent worth a whole lot, even in fairly good condition. However, I am hardly an expert, and I suggest you ask over at Sword Forum International. They'll definitely be able to give you tons of details about it.
 
I also am no expert, but there are hundreds of old Japanese Katanas from WWII, they were standard issue to Japanese soldiers, and the swords are termed as "gunto", if I'm not mistaken. Just type "katana" in ebay, and see how many katana's come up, and compare them to your friend's.

Alot of people who are not extremely knowledgable about Japanese Katana's, sometimes find a sword and think that it may be valuable due to it's "antique" styling and features such as Japanese inscriptions, but much of the time it's just a piece of steel, with no real collectors value whatsoever.

Your pictures do not appear to be something out of the norm, however like I said, I am no expert, especially when it comes to the older era katana's.
I hope someone more knowledgable can assist you, but in the meantime, I would just check out ebay and compare charactersitics.
 
weblet445 said:
A new friend a work told me he had a very old Japanese sword.
Click to expand...

Well, as far as Japanese swords go, I doubt it's really old since the file marks on the tang are still visible.

Any chance we could get a picture of the blade? I can't read kanji, but a closeup of the steel would at least tell you whether it was folded and water quenched, or mass produced from modern steel. The tsuba doesn't look like a military job, though. Where are the rest of the handle components?

If you're willing to spend a bit of time, you could print off a list of characters used on swords from the Japanese Sword Index, here. You might be able to match up a few of the characters.

weblet445 said:
There is some weight to the blade and it did a number on my computer chair when it slipped out of my hand and fell tip first into the cushion whle I was removing the handle.
Click to expand...

:eek:
I'm sure you don't need a lecture here, but it should go without saying that you need to be very careful and respectful of the blade, at least until you find out what it is and what it's worth. The sword could be worth a bunch of money, and it costs serious bucks to repair even tiny scuffs in the finish.
 
Apart from 'respecting' the blade, please don't touch the blade with your fingers which can stain the blade.

A cautionary tale: A friend of mine who polishes Japanese swords has a friend who is also a respected British collector of Japanese swords. He was on holiday in Japan and saw a very well made sword in beautiful old fittings and a well made modern saya. He saw that the tang (nakago) was signed, became highly excited and paid a lot of money for the sword there and then. On getting back home, my friend and he started to translate the symbols which didn't seem to follow normal patterns. There was a Japanese collectors fair in Scotland, so the buyer attended as a Japanese expert was to be there to appraise any swords brought along with the best appraised and explained on the stage. He was very excited to see his prized sword make the stage. One by one the swords were re-examined and the swordmaster went through all the swords on the table. He said and finally we come to this fine sword, described all its features, and its wonderful condition. He read the inscription, 'Made and forged from steel from the Manchurian Railway'. The moral he said was 'buy and study books before buying swords'.

Having said that, I was lucky to buy two swords blind in an auction without seeing them. Both were made between 1395 and 1425. Later I bought a nice tanto without fittings very inexpensively, and that was made in 1860.
 
Your friend seems to have a nice Mantetsu, or maybe Koa Isshin Mantetsu
blade (Manchurian steel). These are so well forged that they have been
mistaken for Hizen Tadayoshi type blades, even though they are Showa
era and made by Japanese smiths stationed in Manchuria during the
war. I have a webpage on these blades if your friend is interested.

Rich S

The Japanese Sword Index
http://www.geocities.com/alchemyst/nihonto.htm
 
you have a fine website sir, I was looking in there last night. I have also just found you have an excellent page on fakes sold on e-bay.

My friend is in Cornwall UK and is called Roy Lindus. He polished and appraised all of my Japanese swords and my Naval Dirk. I have sort of lost touch now. I am sure he would have loved to have seen your website.
 
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