What were the regulations for the Army civilian employees to carry swords?

[Alan M]

Wow , that's an eye opener . Many thanks for sharing your fantastic research Nick .

[Nick Komiya]

Thanks to Alan, you can now come to this article directly from the master index here Master Index for Reference Articles written by Nick Komiya

By the way, the term is Gunzoku 軍属 (civilians in military employ), not Gunsoku 軍足 (military socks), so please don't quote me saying "socks wore army officer swords".

[Bruce Pennington]

Nice anectodotal confirmation of your point Nick:

From George Trotter: "That is also my understanding Bruce.

My Japanese teacher's father was a medical officer attached to the Japanese Army in New Guinea. She told me that "he wasn't an army officer as such" but as he was involved in the medical side of things in the occupied area (I think she said Rabaul) he wore an officer uniform and carried a sword with a brown tassel. Unfortunately he drowned when the ship he was on returning to Japan was bombed and sunk.

I have no "official" proof, but based on her plain words have always considered the brown tassel as "civilian in army uniform" issue. The difference in length between these civilian/army tassels and the navy tassel I was not aware of, although I did notice there was a difference.

Hope this helps,
George Trotter"

[ghp95134]

Thanks to Alan, you can now come to this article directly from the master index here Master Index for Reference Articles written by Nick Komiya

By the way, the term is Gunzoku 軍属 (civilians in military employ), not Gunsoku 軍足 (military socks), so please don't quote me saying "socks wore army officer swords".

Nick,

Thanks for the great info you've given -- I've been sick in bed with a bad cold and am only posting this while my wife is outside taking a break from me!

Here's a good example of a Gunzoku, Takayama Masakichi. We've discussed him before about being the one the "Takayama Swords" are named for.

The article is in Japanese, which is no problem for you -- finally I've been able to find out more detail. But, more to the point of our thread, here are some photos of him in uniform. Unfortunately, I cannot see a sword knot -- but he probably removed it for practicality.

Additionally, the article does NOT address the fact that Takayama was classified as a Type B War Criminal for practicing his test cuttings on scores of Chinese prisoners ["scores" from the English version of The Spirit of the Sword. The Japanese original says "tens of people".]

Can you tell what rank he was? I heard it was the equivalent to LTC or COL/CAPT. I copied the photos from Nakamura Taizaburo's book "Nippon-tō Tameshigiri no Shinzui", and lightened them a bit.

--Guy

[Sporter90]

I saw two Takayama swords on ebay during the last 4 or 5 months. They were both in the navy koshirae. Both had polisher's name in addition to the smith's name written on the tang.

What does this tell you? Thanks!

[ghp95134]

I saw two Takayama swords on ebay during the last 4 or 5 months. They were both in the navy koshirae. Both had polisher's name in addition to the smith's name written on the tang.

What does this tell you? Thanks!

We already know the story. (^__^)

From the link I posted above:

1939年（昭和14年）11月、上海方面の第三艦隊（旗艦「出雲」長谷川清司令官）の命により、上海特別 陸戦隊本部において、抜刀術研究の整備が完了する。これ以後に高山は帰国し、1940年（昭和15年）、雑誌に「武道改革所見」を発表した。またこの頃より、支那事変の戦訓を基に開発された、「高山刀」と称される軍刀を、岐阜県関の刀工を指導し、 作刀させる。
...Takayama returned home after this, and in 1940 (Showa 15)... Also from this time, he developed a sword called "Takayama sword" developed based on the warfare of the China Incident, instructing the swordsmiths of Seki, Gifu prefecture to make the sword.

--Guy

[Type4]

The uniform is identical at that used of military officers, i can si the Nambu holster too, probably is High rank Gunzoku??

[Nick Komiya]

I will look at the photo once out of hospital tomorrow. Cannot see attached photos on my IPhone. Gunzoku wore a large star patch on the arm and collar tabs depicting what looks like a shooting star.

[Nick Komiya]

[QUOTE "he wasn't an army officer as such" but as he was involved in the medical side of things in the occupied area (I think she said Rabaul) he wore an officer uniform and carried a sword with a brown tassel. "[/QUOTE]

Bear in mind she’s a lay person, so she normally means, as a medical doctor he was not really a combatant officer. He therefore had a sword with brown tassel (actually with blue backing, but laymen will only perceive it as brown)

Doctors were not Gunzoku as I said , unless he was a nurse, and college grads became officer class gunzoku, so they would not wear all brown tassels.

All brown tassels were normally worn by people with middle school or vocational school background, whereas army NCOs typically only got through elementary school.

[ghp95134]

Found this photo of a group of gunzoku at this Japanese collector site.

南方方面（外地）で撮影された物と思われる
陸軍軍属の集合写真です。

最前列中央は勅任官（閣下）が４人確認でき、刀緒は勿論
将官刀緒を付けています。椅子に腰掛けている左から四人
目の閣下は昭和十五年制の（前３つ釦＋袖釦２個）で、そ
の他は昭和十八年制従軍服のようで、撮影は大東亜戦争
中１９～２０年と思われます。立っている人は昭和六年制も
どきの様な服や肩章が付いていない様々な服装です。

"...The attached sword tassels are, of course, officer sword tassels...."

But with Nick's research we now know differently.

The suave debonair gentleman in the center with the Hussar-lean is an imperial appointee. According to Weblio, a 勅任官 Chokunin-kan（addressed as 閣下; Kakka "Your Excellency") is explained as:

"旧制において,勅任官が親任官の待遇を受けること例文帳に追加
under the Japanese pre-war constitution, the act of being treated like an Imperial official.

--Guy