Grandfather's war sword, Japanese officer.

[chrisvoge]

After looking through some posts I believe my grandfather left me a handmade Japanese officer's sword. Please help me further, he suffers from Alzheimers now, and it would be nice to know.

My grandfather was very young in the war maybe 18, a Dutch citizen at the time, he fought the Japanese during a side conflict in Indonesia.

Please help me, thank you

[hassiman]

Looks quite nice

[rbminis]

Hello and welcome to the forum!
Your photos of the tang are upside down for anybody that is trying to read them. They should be posted with the tip of the blade pointed up.
Please also post photos of the overall blade. This one is referred to as a kai gunto and belonged to a Japanese naval officer.
Ralph.

[Stu W]

Welcome,

The sword is a Kai-gunto or Navy Officer sword. It was semi machine made with some hand finishing. The Seki Arsenal inspection stamp, in this case, indicates that method of manufacture. Your photographs of the kanji are upside down. Several here will/can assist with the translation. Just give it a day as we are not all able to work on them right away.

Regards,
Stu

[Stu W]

For more information on the Kai-gunto and other types of Japanese military swords have a look here ...

JAPANESE MILITARY SWORDS - I

The Kai-gunto is near the bottom of the page.

Regards,
Stu

[chrisvoge]

Sorry about the upside down photos, I can't quite correct them now. I read the sticky, but apparently I did not understand it!

Here are a few photos I can post now.

I really appreciate all this information, it is nice to know about the sword, my grandfather would not talk about the sword or the war.

[chrisvoge]

Is it worth anything, I want to know if I should insure this...

It will be in my family for a long time hopefully.

[Stu W]

The majority of the value of any edged weapon is in the blade. Without examining the sword in hand it's always a tough call but assuming that the blade is straight and the cutting edge is free of nicks then the sale value of the sword in the US market at this time would be between 1200-1500 USD. Others may see the range differently but I doubt by much.

Regards,
Stu

[ghp95134]

村山兼重
Murayama Kaneshige

関
Seki stamp

He's listed here, but you need to search using kanji or romaji. His civilian name was:
村山重明
Murayama Shigeaki

[chrisvoge]

Wow that is amazing, Thank you so much! You guys are the best.