Writing on WWII Shin Gunto tang.

[Bruce Pennington]

I like your sentiment on appreciating the sword either way! Most of my collection are showato (all but 1) and I love every one of them!

94/98 - I have learned fairly recently that the 98's had slightly thinner tsuba and most have the offset latch button. Of course the 94's came with 2 haikan (belt hanger loops) but the second was removable and today it seems most have gone missing (or were removed by the original officers). So, yours appears to be a 98. The fat seppa (spacers) are often seen on upgraded gunto, so the officer might have paid more for this one! I like the look they give a gunto.

[baerchen]

I just realized that I have not posted pictures of the saya and a crucial detail of it is missing .
Someone scratched a name and a date in it (not sure what to make of it). As the previous owner told me, he bought it from the US, someone here might have seen this before ?
Grateful if someone has any additional info. I assume the name is the family of the soldier who sent this home...? Was this a common thing to do, scratch into the saya?




Some more shots from the blade itself.

[Nick Komiya]

"Mr. & Mrs. Shalar presented this to Eddy on 15th April 1946 in Shanghai" is how I read it.

[Bruce Pennington]

I have seen various ways G.I.s put their names on gunto. It's not common, but other examples are out there.