NCO WO II Katana - In need of knowledge and opinion

[Gabonser]

Hello everybody my name is Maurice from The Netherlands, nice to able to reach out to this forum with knowledge and experts.
The day before yesterday, i bought spontanous and without any knowledge (maybe not wise) a NCO Katana on an online weapons auction.
Reason i felt i was able to do that because it was listed by a thrustworthy auction house - stating that all the items are authentic.
After purchasing the lot i did my newby research ;-) Only to find out it's quite an odd one. The auctionhouse has been helpfull sending
me additional pictures. The auctioneer also told me he personally hasn't seen this type before. But that there was positive feedback within the dealers.
Maybe you experts can share a light if i bought something authentic or totally not.

If you want to share your opinion i'm very happy to hear it.
Any information is welcome, overall authentic or fake, timeperiod factory/ family fabricated etc etc pls share.

Blade is 72.5cm - overall length 100.5
The wheel at the end of the leather Saya is apparantly to prevent it from dragging over the ground - worn by a small person
Cost €400,-

Thank you for your time, grt Maurice

[Bruce Pennington]

Hello Maurice,
Sorry to tell you this, but there is nothing about this sword that is Japanese. I don't know what it is and have never seen anything like it. The tsuba (handguard) is attempting to be patterned after the WWII Japanese officer tsuba (very poorly) and the top latch is attempting to be like a Type 95 NCO top latch. The rest of the fittings are very crude and nothing like you would even see in the Island/Java swords.

Guy may give us a meaning of the inscription, but it looks bad to my eyes.

Auction houses have ways to lie with the truth. Don't know who you dealt with, but I had a run-in with a very well known auction house once. Their legal loophole was they use the term "Japanese style" or "Samurai style" sword. They will also say they are only quoting the owner's description. $400 isn't a terrible loss, but you should get your money back. Good looking Chinese NCO replica's can be found for $150.

Send the auction house these links to real NCO swords, or send them pictures from this site:
Non-commissioned officers Gunto 1935 (Type 95 GuntM)/title>

[ghp95134]

Hi Maurice,

Sorry to say that Bruce is 100% correct. Whomever manufactured the sword did not understand Japanese/Chinese characters, but apparently he had an exemplar to copy.

The signature is trying to be
重光
Shigemitsu

the bottom "kanji" is 光 mitsu/light. You can see the top kanji mimics 重 with all straight lines and no box (i.e. 田)

Hopefully the auction house will recognize it unknowingly sold an incorrectly described "POJ" [piece of junk] and will refund the purchase price and fees to you.

Regards,
-- Guy

[Gabonser]

Hello Bruce and Guy, thank you for the reply and your opinion on the katana. I haven´t payed the invoice of the auctioneer yet. And definitely won´t with the feedback your just gave me. I already addressed to the auctioneer that i had some doubts and would seek advice from people with knowledge. I thank the both of you sharing your knowledge. And i will inform the auctioneer on Monday that i will cancel the purchase. I will update you on there response. Have a great Sunday and greetz from Hollanda thks Maurice