I saw the piece it's actually (in my opinion) a fault in the braiding.
I saw the piece it's actually (in my opinion) a fault in the braiding.
"naval sword tassel with a zig-zag stitch. Nick, have you ever heard of such a thing in Japanese documents?"
No, I have never encountered such specs in a document. For your reference, the 3 zigzag strands in the army general's tassel is described in specs as 表茶色裏赤色ニ金絲三條山形ノ交織平打絹絲紐. If you take away the part highlighted in yellow, it becomes the description of the field-grade officer's tassel.
Oddly enough, the following year Koizumi Chikaharu 小泉親治 wrote a book about military swords entitled 軍刀! It was 130 pages long and was published by the Naval Club of Tōkyō. Used copies of the book show up from time to time in Japan.by nick komiya
Koizumi Chikaharu 小泉･親治. Guntō 軍刀 [Military Sword]. Tōkyō Suikōsha 東京水交社 [Tōkyō Naval Club], 1938.
Thanks, I was unaware of this book and will look for one next time I'm in Kanda Jinbōchō. I found a couple on Google for around $200. Nice illustrations.
- Guy
The lock strap
Navy Blades on the Wane
Navy Blades on the Wane
Thomas Keep sent me a clipping from the Navy Gazette, so I decided to link it to 2 other clippings from those gazettes to show you how material shortages affected production of navy blades as the war progressed.
The first clipping supplied by Tom is dated 1943 May 25th. Issued by the Ministry of the navy, came a notice that henceforth production of sabers, guntos, daggers and metal fittings for their belts needed to minimize the use of copper, due to material shortages. This much was to be expected, as already evident from the coinage in the market, which served as a precursor to what the military would face soon.
As early as 1938, Japan had stopped making copper coins and melted them down for use by the military and by 1940, when they issued the China Incident War Medal, they had to consider switching to aluminum medals, but was barely spared that embarrassment by melting down bronze coins. Thus it was only a matter of time that the military would also have to give up nonessential consumption of copper.
Next is a clipping in which the navy finally had to follow in the footsteps of the army by also issuing a “Rinji Exception 臨時特例”, pared down spec directive for officer swords on 27th March 1945.
Directive Number 54 said
1: Gilding, Gold-colored Metal and Cherry blossom and branch engravings are to cease.
2:Sarute to be omitted.
3:Only one Haikan (scabbard ring) to be present.
4: Use of animal skins to be minimized.
5: Push button type locks to be changed to tie-cord type.
6: Scabbards to be wrapped in tree bark and be finished in black lacquer.
I already mentioned this before in connection with the navy swords sold at the PX to GIs after the war.
Then the final blow came in the form of the full-page clipping from the navy gazette, carrying an announcement of 1945 May 18th that due to material and worker shortages and loss of the majority of workshops to bombing damage, navy dagger production cannot resume for the foreseeable future, and that a collection drive will be held to buy back daggers at current prices for renting out to those in need of them. Everyone needed to return at least one dagger and get a rental, if required.
On the same page, preceding the dagger rental program, another directive eased uniform regulations to allow wear of daggers instead of sabers and gunto for all instructors at navy schools, except when appearing at ceremonies at the imperial palace.
So swords they could also not make anymore got replaced by daggers, no longer in production and only available for rent.
At least the PX customers were luckier than the IJN rookie officers.
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