Style 2 Police Short Swords

[SARGE]

The Japanese Police utilized four (4) distinct styles of short swords for lower ranks according to Jim Dawson in his book, "Swords of Imperial Japan 1868-1945". Dawson shows these four styles of short swords in Chapter 24 of his book and calls them Police Bureau Swords for Patrolmen (junsa) and Sergeants (junsa-bucho). Bear in mind that these Japanese Police swords are very diverse and not yet fully understood by collectors.

I will use Dawson's nomenclature and show one Style 2 Police Sword. This Style 2 short sword is similar in style to other Patrolman and Sergeant rank swords. The gilt brass hilt does contain a Police badge and has a partial guard shaped like the Style 1 short sword. The back strap is made in the general manner of the Style 1 short swords but the back strap does have "ears" on the sides with a single circle design on each ear. The brass hilts often show signs of gold plating and can have sharkskin or leather grips. The short blades are typically machine made blades. The steel scabbards are nickel or chrome plated. The sword knot is the standard brown leather knot seen on other Japanese NCO swords.

This short sword has a narrow blade with a single fuller that is 20" long from the guard to the tip. The machine made blade is made in the same style as the longer blade found on the Type 8 or Type 19 Kyu-gunto worn by Officers. Also notice that the scabbard has an intact permanent second ring mount indicating this is an early style sword with a Type 8 Kyu-gunto style scabbard with two suspension rings. The second (lower) ring was ordered, by the Army, to be removable in 1932 but it is unclear if this also applied to the National Police. It can be presumed that this Police Bureau short sword pre-dates similar swords with only one suspension ring however.

This sword also has maker markings of "K K" on the underside of the guard but this particular manufacturer is unknown to me.

Any information on this "K K" maker marking would be appreciated.

[SARGE]

Gents,

I have recently ferreted out some information on the possible meaning of the "KK" maker markings present on the guard of this sword.  It is possible that the marking is related to, or indicates, Matsushita Kinzoku KK Kokura arsenal (National Denki).  Although this "KK" marking is not their typical logo found on bayonets it seems plausible this may be the meaning of these markings.

Any thoughts?  

 

 

[Tony v]

SARGE

   Thank you for another great posting! The information one can learn is invaluable, we all have to start some where and your post will help many. Keep them coming.

Tony