Japanse NCO sword 1935. Real or fake

[Irish1965]

Hi everyone,

It's complete out of my area of knowledge. But I bought this sword for my son's birthday. Could someone tell me if it's legit? In the description is should be a 1935 NCO sword. Also it is named to Yasuji Akamura, the number one Japanese war criminal in China, as I learned and the 14th Army. Akamura was a general and this looks like a NCO sword.

It does looks like as personalized army sword for a member of the Takeda clan. But the name???? Makes me wonder.

I would like your opinion please.

Cheers Paul

[Bruce Pennington]

Hi Paul,
Hopefully someone will translate the writing. To my untrained eye, the writing seems to be real. The date is 1934, written between the 2 belt hanger loops. But I'm not the guy to speak to that, about the writing in general.

Some things that bother me:

Swords made in the early to mid '30s were normally much better quality than this. The quality of the blade and fittings are more in-line with a post-war souvenir, or Chinese fake.

The fuller groove is weak for such a sword

Big Red-flag is the serial number stamped on the blade. This is not an NCO sword. It's trying to be a civil sword with some military re-fitting parts, which DID happen in the war, but the metal parts are low quality, like I said earlier.

The steel of the blade, while not Damascus (which is a sure sign of a Chinese fake) looks poor, with a poor finish.

My gut feel is that it is a Chinese fake, but it could be a post-war souvenir. Getting a read on the writing might weigh in on one side or the other.

Hope you didn't pay too much.

[Nick Komiya]

An early Chinese fake. The characters under the meatball flag on the scabbard read "Emperor", typical gibberish found on the earlier unsophisticated fakes.

[Irish1965]

I did not pay a lot and have a 14 day return option. I hope someone could translate the old Japanese.

Cheers Paul

[Nick Komiya]

It's a complete fake, so not worth translating. Return it right away. By the way, the name on the blade is Ono, not Akamura. If the seller gave you the name Akamura, he was making it all up, hoping you'd never check.

[Irish1965]

Thx for your input. The transaction is canceled.

After my questions I got this for an answer:

It is the original condition, without modification or polishing. It's just that the collector regularly smeared oil or lubricating oil on the scabbard and blade in order to maintain it.
It was made in Northeast China during World War II. At that time, the three provinces of Northeast China were occupied by the Japanese army. The Japanese army established a large number of factories here, including sword factories.
The user of this sword is called Ono Shigeru.



Cheers Paul

[Nick Komiya]

What a bag of lies! He spews BS like a used car salesman.

[zook]

Wow … that’s an elaborate goofy response from that seller !!

[RussM]

No doubt, a seller to avoid in the future!! At least you've got a return period!