"Showa" or "Dept of Interior" stamp?

[Kiipu]

A 1986 English-language Japanese sword book states this encircled anchor mark 丸に錨 belongs to Toyokawa Naval Arsenal. I disagree as Toyokawa Kaigun Kōshō used entirely different methods for marking manufactured goods. On large items, the kanji characters 豊川海軍工廠 were stamped or printed onto the item. On small items, a stylized anchor mark was used. Thank you for your help with this matter.

[Kiipu]

I will keep my eyes open for the anchor in the circle, but let me know the metric size of the anchor, as size matters greatly in the navy as seen above.

Courtesy of Bruce Pennington via another forum.

Thomas, my Toyokawa anchor is 5.37 mm. If you include the circle it’s 6mm.

Arsenal Stamps. - Page 15 - Military Swords of Japan - Nihonto Message Board

[Nick Komiya]

By the way, I checked all ordinances issued by the department of the interior, so I can tell you that Ohmura-san calling the mark 内務省令検査印 is totally unfounded. There was no such ordinance issued by them. Such ordinances also need to go into the gazette. It was no ministerial directive, but something much less official.

[Bruce Pennington]

Thanks Nick. I suspected as much. Some of the material he's posted on his site comes from interviews with old smiths. You know as well as I what the worker-bee rumor mill does to "official" facts!

[Kiipu]

He apologizes again that until his book is out of his hands, ... .

Possibly this is the book?
真説　戦う日本刀―“最高”と呼べる武器性能の探究
大村 紀征
真説戦う日本刀 / 大村 紀征【著】 - 紀伊國屋書店ウェブストア

[Bruce Pennington]

WOW! Wish I could get that in English!!!

[ghp95134]

戦う日本刀―“最高”と呼べる武器性能の探究
Tatakau Nihontō ― “Saikō” to Yoberu Buki Seinō no Tankyū

• Combat Japanese Swords -- Research What is Called the "Supreme" Weapon Performance
• Fighting Japanese Swords -- Exploring the Performance of the "Best" Weapons

But I'm sure Nick will clean that up for me! (^_^)

If there are lots of photos I just might buy a copy ..... I wonder if he talks much about the "performance" results on unwilling "targets"? (A'la Nakamura and Takayama.)


-- Guy

[Kiipu]

In regards to the book, below is a link to the author's webpage.
日本近代刀剣研究会から

This is the translation that I came up with.
Ohmura Tomoyuki 大村･紀征. Shinsetsu tatakau Nihontō 真説　戦う日本刀 [True Theory, Japanese Sword Fighting]. 2019.

[ghp95134]

...This is the translation that I came up with.
...Shinsetsu tatakau Nihontō 真説　戦う日本刀 [True Theory, Japanese Sword Fighting]

Hi Kiipu,

In this case I think grammatically "Tatakau" modifies "Nippon-to" -- what kind of Japanese Sword? One that is used for combat/battle/fighting. So I think the translation more closely means "True Theory: Japanese Combative/Fighting Swords." {Just as "Bijutsu Tōken" means "Japanese Art Swords; not "Japanese Sword Art."}

戦う(P); 闘う(P) 【たたかう tatakau】 (v5u,vi) (1) (esp. 戦う) to make war (on); to wage war (against); to go to war (with); to fight (with); to do battle (against); (2) (esp. 戦う) to compete (against); (3) (esp. 闘う) to struggle (against adversities, etc.); to fight; to contend; to resist; (P)

-- Guy

[Nick Komiya]

Are you guys stuck with Japanese? 真説 is meant to be a pun of 新説, the latter the usual word meaning new theory/interpretation and the former though read the same way as Shinsetsu, means the True Story. The whole theme of this book is to rebut the traditional view of nihontoh purists that the gunto was only a wannabe nihontoh , but far from the real thing. He wants to portray the gunto as an ultimate fighting weapon in terms of performance.

But at that cheap price you should expect a lot of text and not that many photos.