Those terms sound like coarse steel (raw steel). They might be the same thing but called by different names.by Bruce Pennington
Those terms sound like coarse steel (raw steel). They might be the same thing but called by different names.
The Yasugi steel (nowadays is spelled Yasuki, but is the same kanji 安來 ) is a factory steel with the modern steel manufacturing methods. If use the Yasugu steel, the sword smith doesn't need to purify the steel. Just hammer it into shape and heat treatment according to the specifications. I believe the blade is not laminated.
I may sound easy, but it is not. It's a labor intensive hard work. Go watch a custom knifemaker. Sword making is a lot more hard work even when using ready-made-steel.
I think you have it. The article says the Yasugi company invented electric furnaces and rotary kilns to make the steel, that created good steel without having to use the old multi-folding method.
A new request - All the lists of RJT smiths, that I'm aware of, come from compiled names from observed blades. I think there is even a list of smiths in a book, but I don't know their source. It would be great to find an actual IJA list from WWII of RJT smiths. Maybe such a list doesn't even exist, but if it does, it would sure be nice to have as a reference.
Just Arrived, 3 Books on Swords
3 Books on Swords
It took more than a whopping 4 months, but the books sent me by sea mail from Japan finally arrived yesterday.
They are (1) History of Seki city’s Blade Industry, (2) Rikugun Jyumei Toshoh and the Gunto manufacturing association of Aizu Domain (3) Ohmura’s book on the Japanese fighting sword.
They were all quite cheap, as two were second hand anyway, so I had bought them in the off chance that they might help with the sword markings questions that Bruce had been raising in the past year.
I already read most of the RJT book, and leafed through the Ohmura book, which confirmed it to be pretty much a concise rehashed version of his website. So here are my preliminary findings.
1. RJTs of Aizu
This book from 1994 of 186 pages devotes the first half discussing how the blade smiths of farming tools and carpentry tools of Aizu Domain (current Fukushima prefecture) formed an industry association in 1940, which came under government supervision, as part of the national plan to control every aspect of the economy. Then in 1942, the 1st Tokyo armory called upon the Fukushima prefectural government to ask the industry association for volunteers that would like to become Army Designated Gunto Smiths (RJT) in return for free supply of Tamahagane, charcoal, draft deferment and preferential treatment with food rations. The book shows examples of application forms and correspondence relating to this program.
In 1944, 11 RJTs and 15 polishers formed their own Gunto manufacturing association, apart from the former tools industry association.
Until reading this, I had the impression that the RJT program was mainly intended to bring existing sword smiths under the Army’s roof, and provide them with incentives to be more productive, but the real aim was more ambitious, to make swordsmiths out of smiths, who previously only had experience in making farming and carpentry tools.
The latter half consists of family profiles of the RJT smiths largely based on interviews. Interesting episodes like a smith solicited by both the army and navy, using different trade names depending on who the customer was. Smiths could make good money selling to antique dealers, as an “under the table” source of income besides the military, so smiths applied false names as Mei on these black market supplies. Thus identical swords made by the same smith could have a different Mei.
There is also the story of Shigetsugu Wakabayashi, a smith that moved his family to Manchuria in 1937 and succeeded in developing the Koa-Isshin Mantetsu Sword with Prof. Kusaka. He returned to Japan in 1941 and became a RJT.
2. Seki blade industry book
This book is nearly 1200 pages and covers the blade industry of Seki starting from the Stone Age, so I don’t think I’ll ever read this whole phonebook. Unfortunately there is so far no mention of the Seki stamping that supposedly served as hallmark of quality for Showa-to. Introduction of stringent quality control and product guarantees are mentioned, but no specifics about markings.
3. Ohmura book
I am far from being his fan, but a 242 page book for only $15 was just too cheap to pass up. So far, I’ve only skimmed through it to see what it said about the star stamping, as Bruce had led me to believe that this author was claiming that the star stamp was only allowed for RJTs. However, Bruce must have misread the Ohmura site, as he clearly indicates that the star was an army material inspection stamp, and even when a sword is made by a RJT, it would not have the star stamp, if distributed for sale without going through army channels.
Stringent specs were provided in 1942 for RJT sword supplies to the army (document that Bruce posted earlier in this thread), and if an RJT delivery to the army was found not to be in full conformity with these points, the swords were rejected and returned without any star stamp. These would have been released to the commercial market by the smith without being blessed with the army star. So the star stamp meant Tamahagane was used, in so far as the sword was being supplied through army channels.
By the way, he mentions 4 names as main suppliers of Tamahagane.
1. Yasukuni Tatara
2. Teikoku Steel of Hiroshima
3. Toshiba
4. Akita Steel Works
Nick, I backtracked to the source of my statement in post #9 about 関市史 and located it in a NMB thread from 2012.
The Seki Tanrensho book and others related infos
The Japanese reviewer merely stated the following in post #17.
If you can find this discussion about the 桜に昭, I would like to see your translation of it.(4) The cause by which "Sho" stamp started.
Problem is that mine is the 1998 version, not the 1967 edition. Later editions tend to omit earlier details, but I will keep looking.
How about this section?
（四） 刃物関係組合と検査機関//一〇七四
I already looked up that section from page 1074 first, but no luck.
Nick,
As always, fabulous information. Thank you for sharing it with us!
The interesting part about smiths using different mei on swords sold to antique dealers, and it being "under the table income" - is this because they were using Army-supplied tamahagane intended for RJT work, but used instead for personal gain through sale to the dealers? Or maybe was it simply that they were using their time and labor while under Army contract?
Also, without re-reading my old posts, I don't recall claiming that Ohmura made statements about the star being exclusive to RJT blades. I have collected data of over 60 blades in my study of the issue, and to date, the ONLY blades stamped with a star are made by RJT listed/qualified smiths. So, I am the one claiming that in "sword-world" the star was being used exclusively for RJT approved blades.
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