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Help Reading Japanese? (Inscription on WW2 Officer Sword)


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Hello Surly, I have a Japanese Shin Gunto Type 98 Army Officer Sword from WW2.  Each blade is engraved with the name of the person that made it. Can anyone identify this name for me please?  There is a list of known sword makers somewhere and the value can vary based upon who made it.  I'm pretty sure it's not Turd Ferguson but I've been wrong before. Thanks.

 

Shin Gunto WW2 Sword.jpg

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3 hours ago, Prepuce of Doom said:

I bought this old ceremonial (and possibly cursed?) sword off of eBay about 20 years ago. 

The Spanish translates to, "when I am trapped in the middle of the ocean, I will build a bridge from the ribs of a Chinaman and the blood of a hero" 

Pretty fucking metal. 

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I'm assuming this is what you carve your pumpkins with.

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Fuck Around and Find Out 2
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1 hour ago, Pato del Muerto said:

I hope that’s the tang and not the blade

Yes. It's in great condition overall actually. Also have a near mint type 19 Kyu-Gunto officer ceremonial sword. Grandfather brought them back from occupation duty. 

I appreciate all the replies and the serious reply. After some research today I learned the symbols are actually Kanji and there are  10,000+ variations of them. And therefore I also learned that Surly was not really the best place to ask about this.   But I have found an excellent forum of Japanese sword nerds who shall guide me through this journey. 

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On 4/26/2022 at 7:08 PM, kangsta said:

Hello Surly, I have a Japanese Shin Gunto Type 98 Army Officer Sword from WW2.  Each blade is engraved with the name of the person that made it. Can anyone identify this name for me please?  There is a list of known sword makers somewhere and the value can vary based upon who made it.  I'm pretty sure it's not Turd Ferguson but I've been wrong before. Thanks.

 

Shin Gunto WW2 Sword.jpg

 

Not known to many, but there are actually many different types of Japanese scripts: chiefly Hiragana, Katagana, and Kanji.  The first 2 are syllabic - meaning each character represents a phonetic sound.  Visually, you can recognize them by more blocky and rigid shapes.  Kanji characters represent words or meanings, and in writing tend to be ornate and complex.

Anyway, the inscription on the sword reads, "Made in China"

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I could probably google this up, but I'll ask here for the sake of conversation.

Hand-forged, ground, and polished Japanese swords are a marvel of craftsmanship and cutting instrument design.

Their mass-produced military weapons were functional hot garbage.

Which type of thing are officer's swords like that?

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On 4/28/2022 at 7:15 AM, TwiceHorn said:

I could probably google this up, but I'll ask here for the sake of conversation.

Hand-forged, ground, and polished Japanese swords are a marvel of craftsmanship and cutting instrument design.

Their mass-produced military weapons were functional hot garbage.

Which type of thing are officer's swords like that?

Maybe you already did some of your own research but I think the officer swords fell somewhere in-between. They weren't "mass" produced but they weren't artisanly crafted either. 

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