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WW2 Japanese Navy Sword (postwar)


ponyradish
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ponyradish

I need some help here. Can anyone give me some info on this sword? Rarity, value? Any help appreciated.

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ponyradish,

 

This sword looks like it is trying to be a Type 97 Naval kai-gunto but it is not regulation. These Type 97 Naval Officer swords have a scabbard with two suspension rings and gilt fittings. The fittings on the sword scabbard that you show are not regulation for the Navy Type 97 and appear to be from an Army shin-gunto. The hilt fittings seem to be a mix of Navy and Army style bits and pieces such as the Army style pommel and the Navy style tsuba. Frankly, the sword looks like a "Frankenstein" made of various parts at the very minimum.

 

If you are looking for a "one looker" regulation Naval Officer sword this is not it. I would be very suspicious of this sword from the photographs that you show.

 

I hope this is helpful and perhaps others will chime in with their opinions.

.

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  • 9 months later...

This looks like a WW2 blade made by the Toyokawa Navy Arsenal [anchor within a circle], likely made of anti-rustmetal [non-traditionally made]. The saya [scabbard] is IJA style. The tuska [handle] is a mixture of IJA and IJN styles/parts.

 

Chuck.

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I had one of these before and did a lot of research on it.  It looks correct for a late war Kai-gunto.  By 1944, the Japanese started combining details of these swords out of economy by using army fittings and doing away with the shark skin same on the handle.  This one looks identical to the one I had in the details, it should be good to go.  They are not hard to find per say, but nice nonetheless.  You won't find them fetching too high of a price as people continually search for ancestral blades or early war examples instead of late war issue items which lack that quality to them.

-Ski

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Where?  Mine came straight from the vet who was with the 81st ID in WWII.

20 hours ago, St.Lukas said:

It's been documented that these are post war sanctioned souvenirs. 

Where?  Mine came straight from a vet who served in the 81st Infantry Division.  I got the sword and a rifle that he personally brought back.  I don't doubt that there were swords made as souvenirs, but that doesn't explain mine.  In addition, a particular mention of these late war swords was made in Fuller's Military Swords of Japan 1868-1945.  I will say that my sword did not have the kanjes on the blade, but did have the arsenal stamp.  That is the only detail I see that is different.

-Ski

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Thanks to everyone participating in this thread.  :excl:

This sort of discussion is how we learn in these internet forums.  This "Japanese Navy Sword" is now convincingly shown to be an authorized postwar souvenir creation rather than a wartime sword variation.  Telling someone that something in their collection they believed to be legitimate that it is not is difficult.  It is difficult to say and it is difficult to hear and accept.  All the parties of this discussion maintained their cool and backed their opinions up with facts to come to the truth.  

My sincere thanks to everyone for showing how these discussions should occur.

George (Sarge)

 

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