Rethinking the "Late War" or "Home Defense" Officer Gunto
Article about: All, Something intriguing popped up in my pursuit of Mantetsu blades and numbers. It is a 1938 blade with Dalian Railway stamp, no Mantetsu mei, zodiacal date (Winter '38) and alpha/numeric
Rethinking the "Late War" or "Home Defense" Officer Gunto
All,
Something intriguing popped up in my pursuit of Mantetsu blades and numbers. It is a 1938 blade with Dalian Railway stamp, no Mantetsu mei, zodiacal date (Winter '38) and alpha/numeric serial number "N 156." Assuming that the Mantetsu operation used the alphabet and numbers chronologically, this is the earliest Mantetsu blade I've seen in collector's hands outside of Ohmura's "C 30".
What's significant is that it is made for, and mounted in what has been, up until now, called the "late war" or "home defense" officer fittings. Similar to the Rinji (Type 3; contingency) model, it differs in that the ishizuke is very plain, no frills as is the kabutogane - more so than the standard Rinji style.
I say that the blade was made for these fittings, as opposed to re-fitted later, because of the flat nakago mune. If you will take a look at the mune of all Rinji-mounted blades, whether Mantetsu or not, they have a flat mune and the seppa and tsuba holes for the nakago are flat at the top. ALL Mantetsu I have seen, mounted in Rinji fittings, have been made with flat nakago mune. The serial number is stamped on top of it.
What's challenging about this is that the Rinji style was ordered Sept of '38 and according to Nick Komiya, Warrelics, the model hit the streets in 1940. With a date of "Winter" '38, this gunto COULD be a prototype of the Rinji style. If so, the styling was adopted and jazzed up a tad bit in production models.
If this is the case, though, why would we still see this most rudimentary version years later (seen in '44 models), so much so, that they were labeled by both Fuller and Dawson as "late war"?
Possibilities come to mind, but none of them are supported by facts or documentation - Was this a model specifically made for the brutal cold of the China campaign (a few Mantetsu have been found in these fittings)?; Was this a prototype for the Rinji, and after adoption, the contractor continued making this style throughout the war?; Was this single set made for Rinji trials, and later adopted by late-war manufacturing orders (Dawson says Fuller cited documents ordering this style at the end of the war)? We don't know.
What we DO know is someone owns a 1938 blade made by Mantetsu specifically for Rinji-styled, or home defense styled, fittings! It doesn't make sense that this style was "home defense" in 1938.
I will send this to Richard Fuller and see what he thinks. Any updates I get will be posted
The mune of the nakago is always flat. Why is it a big news? Also, showa22's sword is not signed, if it only has a date.
The Mantetsu mune's are always rounded UNLESS it's fitted in a Rinji. But I see what you mean about the rest of the Type98 world. Hmmmm. Which puts this blade into question, like maybe it was a mumei standard blade and Showa22 added the kanji to make it Mantetsu.
The lack of Mantetsu mei is not common, but I've seen this on a couple of '38's. I don't think they were quite standardized on everything in those first few months.
Is there a factory logo like the one shown above? If there is logo, it's signed with a logo.
The mune of nakago should be flat. You'll find this on the old samurai era swords. Otherwise, it deviates from the correct way of making swords. If it only slightly domed, it won't affect function. Maybe it's just the matter of different files that were used.
Nakago mune on all my Japanese swords, nihonto and Showato, all 10 of them, is flat. The variation appears on the mune above the habaki. The various styles there, flat, rounded or ridged are considered to be indicative of age and school.
Anyone thinking of dealing with Showa22 or using any of his photos for research should exercise due diligence starting with running some searches on WAF.
Rethinking the "Late War" or "Home Defense" Officer Gunto
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by Sporter90
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