Article about: Unveiling of the Rinjiseishiki Sword in 1940 Recap for New Readers Though the Type 98 sword was introduced along with new German Wehrmacht inspired uniforms on 31st May 1938, it became clear
This meant that the Army had to consider more mass-produceable means of making officer swords. This will eventually take the form of Zoheito, arsenal made nontraditional blades. However, traditionally produced blades also came under scrutiny to increase productivity where possible.
This was the background that led to the issue of a development mandate for a no-frills stand-in for the Type 98 sword to make do until hostilities ceased and sword demand got normalized in peacetime, when they could all go back to the Type 98 Sword.
That mandate issued on 16th September, less than 4 months after introducing the Type 98 said this sword, in wartime alternative specs (Rinjiseishiki), needed to aim at production of 3,000 swords annually at a purchase price to officers of 80 Yen. To keep it a pure combat sword, decorative features in brass were not to be incorporated. Though, by nature, it was an informal design not aiming to replace the Type 98, the mandate added that the Minister of the Army needed to approve the final design, which at the same time insinuated that it would not be made subject to the Emperor’s approval.
This word, "Rinjiseishiki", was a social buzz word in 1938, as even the new coinage issued to conserve war-critical metals were called Rinjiseishiki Coins, reflecting an overall shortage of raw materials caused by the China Incident of July 1937.
This far was only a recap of what my regular readers already know. Now I finally get into the meat of today’s story. By the way, Rinjiseishiki Sword is what has been erroneously called the Type 3 Sword.
Official Launch of the Rinjiseishiki Sword on 22nd August 1940.
On 22nd August 1940, Army Regular Memo 5830 officially announced the completion of this Rinjiseishiki Sword project. It said that Kaikosha and Gunjin-kaikan will release for sale to officers swords priced at 115 Yen in annual quantities of 3,000 swords (however, for 1940 it would be limited to about 1,000 swords). Though the price went up from 80 Yen now to 115, the annual production target of 3,000 a year is just as the 1938 mandate had demanded.
The printed memo further explained that the sword “was made to be robust and practical in both blade as well as exterior fittings, based on lessons from the Incident” However, in the earlier handwritten draft, this same sentence read slightly differently as it said “was made to be robust and practical in both blade as well as exterior fittings based on lessons from the Incident. It is in conformity to army uniform regulations” The last part was dropped from the final announcement.
Furthermore, the cover letter of this earlier draft from 16th August gives away further hints about how the army perceived this new sword. The Japanese title had originally read 軍装用軍刀, “Gunto for Field Dress”, but the 4 kanjis in front were crossed out, leaving only the word “sword”. This indicates that the sword was to be limited to field wear and you needed to wear the Type 98 for dress occasions, etc. That implied that when hostilities were over, officers were expected to go back to the Type 98 swords as required by army uniform regulations.
The deletion also stressed that the sword was NOT a Gunto, but simply a sword. This minor distinction is important as only the Type 98 could be called a Gunto at that time.
If you read between the lines, the original draft before the deletions and final announcement in combination admits that “the sword did not comply with army uniform regulations and was therefore not even a Gunto as defined in that regulation, but it was permitted to be worn in battle.” It was never a sword destined to get recognition as a Type, but like all Rinji items, only a temporary wartime solution to keep supplies flowing.
One huge drawback of launching this sword in such an underhanded way was that it could not get any advertising backup in the form of coverage in the gazette. If it were an EM item, you just issued them like felt field caps or rubberized canvass ammo pouches, but officer swords were a matter of an officer’s choice. So even though they were ready to sell 1,000 swords in 1940 already, it is easy to imagine there were only a few takers at best. Clearly that is why the army sought big news exposure of the new sword design by holding a press preview in early January of 1941 to have the newspapers advertise and give the sword a "Samurai aura" that would hopefully sell.
80 Yen in 1938 is the equivalent of 137,459 Yen in today's currency, while 115 Yen in 1940 is equivalent to today's 131,476 Yen, so considering the wartime inflation of consumer prices between 1938 and 1940, the army had fully achieved the 1938 development target.
At a time when a decent Type 98 with a traditional blade would have cost upwards of 150 Yen (171,490 Yen today), 115 Yen was a hefty saving of 23%.
But still the army did not have the heart to confide to its new officers that the Rinjiseishiki Sword was only a wartime expediency and an exception to army uniform regulations as specified by the Emperor, and they would have to buy a proper Type 98 for service in a peacetime army.
Obviously, behind this two-faced attitude of the army was the thought that prosperity from winning the war would make up for such temporary irregularities.
Last edited by Nick Komiya; 05-11-2021 at 10:14 AM.
I finally nailed the Emperor's signed "pre-approval" for the Rinjiseishiki Sword as a wartime departure from the Type 98 sword specs.
The emperor was already given a heads up on the inevitable introduction of the Rinjiseishiki model 3 months in advance of the development mandate for that sword being issued.
Thus the May 31st launch of the Type 98 sword already included a clause in the fine print that minor departures from the given Type 98 specs during wartime and incidents (reference to the China Incident) were anticipated and permitted.
As the Toyama School had already warned in its official report issued a month after the outbreak of hostilities with China at the Marco Polo Bridge, planners were already well aware that the Type 98 cannot be expected to be supplied to all officers in its currently conceived form, unless peace broke out.
Thus in getting the emperor to authorize Type 98 specs, they forewarned him of unavoidable spec compromises already on the horizon.
As discussed in the beginning of this thread, this pared down version of the Type 98 was finalized for launch in August 1940.
Initially they were planning to launch it as fully conforming to army uniform regulations, based on the emperor's approval in the form of edict 392, but they must have soon gotten second thoughts, as what they had finished developing was no longer a "minor" departure from Type 98 specs allowed for in edict 392. By omitting any mention of conformity, they underlined the fact that this spec was only valid for wartime.
The devil was in the fine print, small enough even for an emperor to miss, but hopefully this will conclusively prove how absurd it is to call that sword a Type 3.
If "Rinjiseishiki" is too much of a mouthful, now we can call it a "Type 98 Wartime Variant Version", as it was approved by the emperor as a package with the Type 98.
Nick,
In discussing this version, many have noted that the massive majority of them found today have no sarute, nor tassel. There are some exceptions with clearly period legitimate sarute, but most are absent.
I couldn't find in your 3 articles on the topic, a photo of the variant, like the one above of the Type 98, showing a sarute, or a discussion of the exact details which would include the use of a sarute or not. The hole in the kabutogane is larger than that of the 98s, so it seems to have been designed to be used without sarute. Any info on the matter would be appreciated!
Rinjiseishiki documents do not discuss any details of the design, but it appears obvious to me that a sarute is a nonessential frill that went against the objective of the sword. The drawing released in 1944 in the book "Gunto" features what can only be an official army drawing, showing the tassel to be fixed directly in the hole without any sarute.
Unveiling of the Rinjiseishiki Sword in 1940
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