Rikugun Jumei Tosho (RJT) Star Stamped Blades - Documentation?

[Nick Komiya]

Ohmura's page claims that all RJT qualified blades (and we know from this reg that RJT blades are traditionally made) will get the star stamp; all known blades with the star are from RJT smiths

The above is what you said about Ohmura's claim earlier in this thread.

The "under the table business" occurred, because the antique dealers offered much higher prices than the army. It would have been better profit, even if the smith had to pay the army the full price for the materials. In those days, the government froze all prices for commercial goods, but antiques obviously were not under government price control, so selling under that category must have become a loophole not to be bound by the army's fixed prices. One RJT admits they sold lots to antique dealers this way.

[Nick Komiya]

RJTs were initially issued, for each sword, 5kg of Tamahagane and 1.3 kg of kitchen knife grade steel to serve as the soft core. This got reduced to 4kg and 1kg respectively from 5th June 1943. All that remained of this after the hammering to remove impurities was about 1.3 kgs in weight, further down to 1kg by the time of handing over to the polisher.

Those days, retail price for swords at Kaikohsha was 120 yen, and the RJT got paid 50 yen out of this and 23-25 yen went to the polisher.

[Kiipu]

1. RJTs of Aizu
... 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.

In 1944, 11 RJTs and 15 polishers formed their own Gunto manufacturing association, apart from the former tools industry association.

This matter recently came up and now I am curious as to the name of these two associations. It seems the name of the 1944 association was riki kumiai jimusho 利器組合事務所; but, what is the name of the 1940 association?
Sword Society job title translation?

[Nick Komiya]

As I had explained in this thread, in 1939, the government enacted measures to fully grasp the reins of the war economy and by 1940, each trade for each region had to form a trade union through which the government controlled all private businesses. This applied not only to blade smiths, but also to ceramic companies making Sake cups, seamstresses making flags, etc, etc. This structure was used to freeze retail prices and to channel industrial resources to war critical production sectors.

1940 :Thus each cutlery producing prefecture would have established its own trade union. For cutlery producers of Fukushima (Aizu), this union was 福島県利器工業組合、Fukushima-ken Riki-Kougyou Kumiai (Fukushima Prefecture Industry Union of Blade Makers).

Bear in mind that at this time, they were mainly making blades for kitchen use, carpentry and farming and many of those that later became RJTs had not been involved in any sword making since their grandfather's generation, like in the case of Wakabayashi Shigetsugu (later the number 2 official of the Gunto Union).

1942 July: The Army called upon each prefecture to solicit volunteers through these unions, who may be interested in getting into sword production. These messages from the military originated in the First Tokyo Army Arsenal and got passed onto the union through the Trade and Industry Dept. of the Prefectural government, and then from the union to its member smiths.

In this manner, from late 1942 to 1944, as many as 10 smiths joined the RJT program in Fukushima.

1st April 1944: The RJT smiths established their own Gunto Union called 福島県軍刀工業施設組合 Fukushima-ken Gunto Kougyou Shisetsu Kumiai (Fukushima-ken Gunto Industry Facility Union), which was called 軍刀組合 Gunto Kumiai for short. This union was composed of 11 RJTs and 15 Polishers.

[Bruce Pennington]

This seems to explain the "Seki Curlery Manufacturers Association", right? Or does anyone know if this particular organization pre-dated this government mandate? I ask because I have "Showa" stamped blades on file as far back as 1935. Maybe the Seki organization already existed and the government mandated ones were simply along the same idea?

[Nick Komiya]

The cutlery industry of Seki knew how to team up for more bargaining power since the Meiji and Taisho periods, so they already had a long history of unions.

[Nick Komiya]

The star material inspection stamp was used on a wide range of materials issued, after army inspection, from sword Tamahagane to Aluminum Scrap for last ditch cast aluminum mess kits.

[Nick Komiya]

Further on the star stamp, the following flow chart shows how Army Weapons HQ controlled which weapons producer got how much of the special steel alloys subject to rationing.

In case of Tamahagane, the bottom box labeled "Army designated factory" would have been the guild that represented the RJTs.

A manufacturer could not get any supply of special steel from the mill, unless they presented an army issued allocation certificate for a specific quantity. These certificates had to be issued by Army Weapons HQ or by its outpost.

Army Weapons HQ tallied up the projected total demand for the material for the next fiscal year and placed a production order to the mill for that total amount. This amount set aside for the army got issued to factories based on the fore-mentioned certificate system.