Early WW2 C1939-1940 Japanese Officer\'s Type 98 Shin Gunto Seki Arsenal Katana Sword With Smith Signed Tang ‘SEKI JU KAWASAKI NAGA MITSU SAKU’ Scabbard With Leather Field Service Cover & Expert Assessment. Sn 22124 Sword

Early WW2 C1939-1940 Japanese Officer's Type 98 Shin Gunto Seki Arsenal Katana Sword With Smith Signed Tang ‘SEKI JU KAWASAKI NAGA MITSU SAKU’ Scabbard With Leather Field Service Cover & Expert Assessment. Sn 22124 - 22124

An original early Ww2 Japanese Officer's Type 98 Sword with smith signed tang. The sword has been assessed by UK Japanese sword expert Bill Tagg. A copy of his hand written notes and illustrations accompany the sword. In extracts from his notes he states “A Type 98 shin gunto army officer’s sword with Honoki wood saya, leather covered for field service, in good used condition, one ashi suspension ring. Tsuba standard gunto pattern brass. With couple of seppa. Tsuka hilt with gunto brass fittings and copper menuki. Missing its sarute cord loop. Fish skin complete & bound in light brown Ito, clean condition. The blade is a reasonable quality Showa To None traditional made using scrap iron or bar stock, hand worked and oil quenched to produce a nioi crystal edged temper line hamon. Signed by its maker ‘SEKI (City) JU (Living In) KAWASAKI (Family Name) NAGA MITSU (Art Name) SAKU (Made This)’. Born in 1906 worked as a gunto army smith (see Fuller & Gregory books page No.61 List 293. And Markus Sesko book on Japanese sword smiths page 249 for this man. Blade is in original polish (bright) with scuff marks & scratches after 80 yrs of carry & use. A nice example of an Officer’s sword made circa 1938-39”. In his illustrations Bill translates the tang signature, identifies a partial seki arsenal mark. He measures the cutting edge as just under 65.5 cms, total length 856 cms and describes other blade and tang measurements & characteristics which can be seen in image 2. The price includes UK delivery. Sn 22124

£1,395.00