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Family or short blades as Gunto

Article about: I wanted to add this to my Rinji Seishiki Gunto thread, but I could not do so because that thread was already closed. Anyway, in post 3 of that thread I wrote about the public drive to colle

  1. #1

    Default Family or short blades as Gunto

    I wanted to add this to my Rinji Seishiki Gunto thread, but I could not do so because that thread was already closed.

    Anyway, in post 3 of that thread I wrote about the public drive to collect old family swords for conversion into Gunto to make up for the shortages of Gunto production. I thought it might be of interest to sword people to know what the threshold conditions were for entering old swords in this program, as they also provide clues to other questions such as the short models that some like to believe were for flyers or old family treasure swords used as guntos.

    Attached below is the public flyer distributed by the military sword appraisal committee and the paragraph boxed in red defines the conditions under which they bought swords from the public. This was part of the home front support activity that later got acknowledged by the China Incident Commemorative Medal.

    I will provide a translation of the boxed section----

    (Qualifications necessary in the sword submitted for consideration)
    "Swords suitable as Gunto, coming with a minimum blade length of 54.5 centimeters (21.5") will be bought up at fair prices. However, please understand that those valued at more than 500 Yen and naturally those that reveal themselves to be of national treasure class or of particular historical value in the preliminary acceptance Shinsa screening will need to be excluded, and we ask that they be kept in your custody to be preserved on behalf of the nation. Please be sure to clearly tag with name and address the blades you submit"


    Thus swords for this program could be roughly 20% shorter than standard, which lowered the threshold to allow longer length Wakizashi blades 大脇差(54.5-60.6cm), as that was still preferable to not having any sword at all. Wakizashi were not regarded as Samurai swords, and could be worn by farmers and town-folk, too, so quantity-wise, that maximized use of what was already out there in public.

    At the same time, they had the sense not to send precious treasures out into the battlefield by only accepting blades up to 6 times the value of a rinji seishiki blade and rejecting anything more expensive.

    The flyer is titled "About serving your nation with Guntos" and would have been delivered in the newspapers or passed around as a neighborhood round robin.

    The leaflet is not dated, but it can be told from the name of the issuing authority that it was issued after February 1942.
    Click to enlarge the picture Click to enlarge the picture Family or short blades as Gunto  
    Last edited by Nick Komiya; 12-23-2017 at 04:37 PM.

  2. #2

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    I now understand why officer favorite katanas more than wakizashi.

    Would the army paid up to 500 JPY for a sword? Or would they paid less than the actual value. Some of thoose guntos would have been way more exepensives than a Rinji one ?

    Does the leaflet tells anything about the koshirae of such sword ? If I understand right the Military Sword appraisal committee was an Army/Navy joint venture ?

    I have a wakizashi in a regular Kaigunto koshirae (cheap textured laquer not expansive skin laquered). It was said to me it costed a month of income to the father who gifted it to his young officer son.

    The crew gunto theory is often an abuse. I have read in the memory of a naval flyer that it became forbiden to fly with the sword in the cockpit during the war (don't remember the actual year I will try to find it back).

  3. #3

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    I encountered a sword with a broken sticker on the leather cover. The sticker showed a partial temple's name and address. I thought, a monk (和尚樣) was enlisted. Now it's obvious that that sword was a donation from the temple to the military. 軍刀報國 was not limited to the sword smiths.

  4. #4

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    The 1942 program that relates to that leaflet is strictly an army program, managed under the Chief of Army Weapons HQ and evolved from the earlier 1938 program which was indeed a army/navy joint program. This appraisal organization was established on 19th February by Army Regular Ordinance 990.

    It was a program supported by the local Veterans Association as well as the Taiseiyokusankai Political Party. Municipalities would announce the dates and venues of the appraisal sessions and the army sent its appraisers to do preliminary screening. Only the swords that passed this screening were sent further to the HQ of the Officer Gunto Appraisal Committee 将校軍刀監査委員会 for a full screening to determine a fair price. Owners of swords that passed got a notice of appraised value through their local municipal office and the money was remitted by the Gunjinkaikan. Those swords were polished and set into proper new Koshirae and sold to Army officers.

    Yes, the maximum blade quality for this program was 500 Yen, which meant that they would sell at much higher prices than the Rinjiseishiki specials. If there were swords that got dropped in the second appraisal, they got returned to owners with detailed explanations as to why.

    The program only required the blades, but owners who wished to sell the swords complete with Koshirae was paid for the Koshirae as well.

    I just checked the original army/navy joint buy-up program rules announced in the fall of 1938 and discovered that the blade length criteria of minimum 54.5 cm was already in effect from that time. The 1942 rules are more streamlined and easier for the public to follow and contribute, but otherwise it is the same program, just without the involvement of the navy.
    Last edited by Nick Komiya; 12-23-2017 at 08:59 PM.

  5. #5

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    Nick, I honestly appreciate the priceless work you are doing! I'd recommend you for Lifetime Memebership but I see that was wisely done already! Thank you!

  6. #6

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    Quote by Bruce Pennington View Post
    Nick, I honestly appreciate the priceless work you are doing! I'd recommend you for Lifetime Memebership but I see that was wisely done already! Thank you!
    Right from the beginning Bruce.
    ralph.
    Searching for anything relating to, Anton Boos, 934 Stamm. Kp. Pz. Erz. Abt. 7, 3 Kompanie, Panzer-Regiment 2, 16th Panzer-Division (My father)

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    nice information

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    Image and valuable information copied, saved on hard drive, and secured in my top-secret vault of valuable information.

    Thanks Nick, for EVERYTHING you've done for we collectors and aficionados of Japanese military history.

    --Guy

  9. #9

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    I actually had this information for the last several years, but didn't know that it was of any interest to sword collectors. Hard for me to tell what is common knowledge and what not in neighboring fields that are not of personal interest to me. If a sword collector makes a serious go at the archives you would be staggered with what comes out.
    Last edited by Nick Komiya; 12-23-2017 at 11:12 PM.

  10. #10

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    As this ended up drawing huge amount of attention, I feel called back to the stage to give you a little more. Here's a translation of part of the preface, the section boxed in blue below. It's clear that the contingency spec sword program had hit a snag at this point in autumn of 1942 and prospects still fell short of supplying enough to solve the sword shortage existing since 1937.

    Our association was established for the purpose of supplying ample quantities of Gunto and to supervise its production. The Army is in preparation to mass produce its new sword designs. However, despite best efforts, fulfilling demand required for this great military conquest is unfortunately not possible without relying on old swords in public possession.
    This autumn we must ask those citizens throughout Japan who possess swords to generously offer their prized swords to us for use by soldiers going to war that need to rely on such Japanese swords for the protection of their lives. This is something we all owe them as part of the responsibility of home-front support.
    As such, our association has been supported by the prefectural and municipal governments, the Taiseiyokusankai Party and Veterans Associations in our initiative of serving the nation by means of Gunto supply and we hereby call upon all citizens to rise in support of the achievement of this end as their loyal duty.
    Click to enlarge the picture Click to enlarge the picture Family or short blades as Gunto  

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