Article about: The Year 25 Model Cavalry Gunto Actually, I have never done any research on the 1892 Model Army Cavalry Saber (predecessor to the Type 32 and 95 swords), but as I was asked, I thought why no
Actually, I have never done any research on the 1892 Model Army Cavalry Saber (predecessor to the Type 32 and 95 swords), but as I was asked, I thought why not and did some quick exploratory research in the archives, which I present below as a chronology of main changes.
19th March 1892
Army Ordinance Number 20 introduced what it simply called a new Cavalry Sword (騎兵刀). Back then, the later practice of giving models “Type” designations defined by the year of introduction was not yet in use, so the official name was simply “Cavalry Sword”, nothing sophisticated as “Type 25 Cavalry Sword”. Neither did they have the practice yet of introducing weapons on a probational basis, so confusing designations like “Provisional Type 25 Cavalry Sword”, which got applied to the Type 95 sword did not exist either, thank God.
However, because they had no 2-year probation system nor the “Year Type”, when they needed to consider some improvements 2 yeas later, they needed to coin the name of 廿五年制式騎兵軍刀 (Year 25 Model Cavalry Gunto) to refer to the current specs that needed improvement.
Army Ordinance 6 announced a newly designed leather hanging strap for the new cavalry sword. This became necessary, because the previous suspension allowed the sword to wobble and swing when taking hurried steps, catching ones legs or coming off the belt altogether, in addition to the Kojiri dragging on the ground, when not on horseback.
6th April 1893
Army Ordinance 36 announced that henceforth issuing of special military police sword designs were to be discontinued and cavalry swords introduced the previous year were to be issued to military police personnel as well. This former Kempei sidearm looked like an oversized bayonet, “quite unwieldly as well as ungainly” to the army brass. In comparison, at that time, the Tokyo Artillery Arsenal was starting to produce the cavalry sword design with Nihonto style tempered blades, yielding razor sharp blades the army felt was ideal for military police use.
28th April 1893
Army Ordinance 43 spelled out changes to how to dress up in army uniform for various occasions and this mentioned that all swords, whether for dress or field use, must be worn from the sword belt worn over the tunic, "except cavalry swords that were to be worn under the tunic".
10th July 1894
Army Ordinance Number 71 introduced a portable set of files to sharpen the sword blade for wartime and to dull the blade down for peacetime safety. In those days, even traditional blades were not allowed to remain razor sharp in peacetime and had to have the edge dulled by filing down. This practice actually got carried over all the way, even to the Type 95 swords. More on this practice and the jigs here.
Having spent 2 years with the new cavalry design, some shortcomings were becoming a nagging problem. So three points of design improvements were proposed by the cavalry for consideration by the Minister of the Army, Iwao Oyama.
Improvement request 1
A button to free the sword from the scabbard was located on the backstrap of the grip, but this position being exposed to falling rain, let the rain seep into the grip from around the button, which further led to the scabbard filling with water and causing the blade to rust. In addition, the spring effect of the Chuso lock got weaker and soon would not suffice to hold the blade in the scabbard. So the idea was to eliminate water entry by discontinuing the unlock button and instead adopt leafsprings attached to the mouth piece of the scabbard, like the construction applied to bayonet scabbards, which hold the blade and prevent slipping out of the scabbard.
Improvement request 2
Rattling noises at the grip were being caused by grip parts being loose fitting, so fit needed to be adjusted tighter and a leather washer was proposed to be added as a Seppa to cushion the grip hitting the mouth of the scabbard when sheathing the sword.
Improvement request 3
The metal trapazoidal ring that joined the 2 sections of the sword belt as well as supporting the suspension strap of the sword easily got pulled out of shape, so a more robust ring was needed.
At this time, I have no positive proof whether these improvements were actually introduced in 1894, but as Japan would enter the Sino-Japanese War 5 months later in August, hopefully they got things fixed by then.
When I have a chance, I will continue this thread with other aspects of this sword such as production numbers, etc.
Last edited by Nick Komiya; 12-16-2020 at 12:14 PM.
The serial number is stamped on the reverse side of the blade forward of the guard. The observed serial number range for the (明治二五年)騎兵刀 [(Meiji 25th Year) Cavalry Sword] is 325 to 16416. The full serial number can be found on both the blade and scabbard. Unlike other Meiji era enlisted army swords, these blades are undated. The early swords have no maker markings either. Starting at serial number 13121, the Tōkyō Artillery Arsenal 東京砲兵工廠 logo starts to appear on the crossguard and continues until the end of production.
The Tōkyō Artillery Arsenal 東京砲兵工廠 logo that I am referring to above was introduced in 1897 and a depiction can be seen at Nick's post below. Short Development History of Type 95 Gunto
Army Ordinance 36 announced that henceforth issuing of special military police sword designs were to be discontinued and cavalry swords introduced the previous year were to be issued to military police personnel as well. This former Kempei sidearm looked like an oversized bayonet, “quite unwieldly as well as ungainly” to the army brass. In comparison, at that time, the Tokyo Artillery Arsenal was starting to produce the cavalry sword design with Nihonto style tempered blades, yielding razor sharp blades the army felt was ideal for military police use.
The Military Police (MP) Short Sword 憲兵刀 can be seen over at Ohmura's website at Army Artillery Sidearms. It is identified as the "Army artilleryman sword (Otsu)" but it is more than likely the MP Short Sword with iron fittings.
JACAR C04030739500
Thanks Kiipu. I wasn't aware that the kempei also used this type of sword. I was on the impression that they were only used by artillery, transport troops and NCOs
The Arisaka Saber (Development of Japan’s first domestically produced cavalry saber)
I started my story on the cavalry sword from its official launch in March 1892, but of course, what got unveiled then was a culmination of years of behind-the-scenes development work. As a former automotive product developer myself, no story of mine can do justice to the subject without the blood, sweat and tears of that part of the tale.
Some historical background
The 1872 prohibition of carrying swords, unless one was in an uniformed service of the government, made Samurai swords obsolete and threatened the survival of that traditional craft.
Instead, what the new government wanted now for the Emperor’s military was the latest in European arms, particularly those from Germany, since Prussia had just set an example by winning over France. Until that point, the example that Japan had been following in its effort of militarization was Napoleon the Third’s French army.
In addition to the Prussian victory in the Franco-Prussian War, the March 1873 meeting between the Japanese delegation and Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck made Japan acutely aware of historical similarities and organizational needs of the two nations, both emerging newbies to the imperialistic world of the 19th century, and having within itself about 300 separate feudal domains that somehow needed to march together under a constitutional monarchy. From this point, Japan was quick to realign its legal system and military to the Prussian system.
As a rule, military swords were now sabers imported from Solingen, but the cavalry branch resisted this change and kept to French style.
1887 was the year that Yoshifuru Akiyama, the later “Father of the Japanese Cavalry” was sent to the French Military Academy in Saint-Cyr for 4 years of cavalry officer training, where he got convinced that the French cavalry fighting style was actually better suited to Japan than the Prussian style.
Prior to that, from around 1875, some Japanese sword craftsmen on the brink of losing their livelihood in Samurai swords embarked on a challenge to produce domestic versions of these European imports. See here for more on that.
It was in this period of trying to win back sword production to Japan that the 1892 Model Cavalry Sword was born.
Last edited by Nick Komiya; 12-19-2020 at 04:20 PM.
I previously explained that, back then, they did not yet have the sophistication of a “Year Type” designation nor the “Provisional Type” system and what they launched was simply called a “cavalry sword”.
They owed that kind of garage shop simplicity to the fact that they only had to prepare for 19th century warfare, something Napoleon or Bismarck were familiar with. But the face of warfare was about to take on a drastic turn at the doorstep to the 20th century.
Smoke was eliminated from fired gun ammunition, no longer giving away your position to the enemy as puffs of white smoke. That made peacock style red military uniforms obsolete and suicidal in taste. Instead, concealment and khaki camouflage became buzz words.
And soon by WW1, development teams had to get involved with machine guns, tanks, chemical weapons, planes, helmets, submarines, etc. all at once.
Until then, each branch of the army independently had to deal with their equipment needs, but they could no longer cope with development needs of a new age of mechanized warfare with that style of compartmentalized mentality.
Thus on 15th April 1919, the Army Technical HQ (陸軍技術本部) was established to bring all R&D work under one roof, pretty much like James Bond’s Q department. And this across-the-board platform finally allowed the designation of “Types” we are familiar with.
However, to get back to our sword story, we have to back up again to the year 1888, when Yoshifuru Akiyama was still undergoing training at the Military Academy in France.
Back then, there were two separate R&D groups catering to the needs of army branches. One was the Artillery Commission 砲兵会議 and the other was the Engineers’ Commission 工兵会議.
It was the artillery commission to which the cavalry needed to apply for a new sword design.
1st November 1888
This was the day upon which the Inspectorate General of Cavalry made an application to his superior, Aritomo Yamagata, requesting a new design of cavalry gunto for his troops. This request was further forwarded by Yamagata to the Artillery Commission on 16th November.
It is interesting that this followed in the footsteps of a new pistol design for cavalry submitted just 8 days earlier. This sword request was immediately accepted by the commission for consideration and reissued as a R&D order to the commission the next day as Inspectorate General of Artillery Order #40. Unfortunately that document eluded my search, so instead, I show you below R&D Order #6 issued in January of that same year ordering development of a new sword design for the transport troops.
The 1st November letter was actually not merely paperwork, but was accompanied by a prototype sword for which the cavalry was seeking the commission’s assessment and approval.
Nobukatsu Sano 佐野延勝, the Inspectorate General of Cavalry, wrote in his letter to Yamagata that a cavalry sword had to be lightweight, sharp and match the compact stature of the Japanese cavalryman, but the French model currently issued to the cavalry was neither light, sharp nor in the right length to be wielded nimbly by a Japanese.
Thus he had arranged for a prototype in an ideal size and had several examples issued to the Cavalry Battalion within the 1st Imperial Guard Regiment for sharpness comparison testing against the current model.
As a result of this test, the prototype was found to outperform the current model by a huge margin with an additional benefit of being 150 grams lighter.
Last edited by Nick Komiya; 12-19-2020 at 09:35 PM.
The Year 25 Model Cavalry Gunto
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by nick komiya
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