WED FEB 8, VERY NOTABLE JAPANESE ARMY COLONELS SHIN GUNTO SWORD, VERY OLD ANCESTRAL BLADE FROM THE LATE 1600’S, WITH FAMILY NAME ON THE MENUKI & MON CREST, HIGH END AFFAIR!

This is a quite interesting Japanese Army Officers Shin gunto Sword with a very, very old ancestral blade from around 1650!   We have an early type Japanese Army officers Shin Gunto sword WITH A COLONEL’S TASSEL, in High Quality military mounts and a Silver Mon (Family Crest) inset into the sword handle PLUS VERY UNUSUAL DOUBLE MON SET INTO THE MENUKI WITH THE FAMILY NAME OHKAHIRA (?).  This was a family heirloom that was re-purposed into the regulation Army Officers Shin Gunto Sword and would have certainly had great sentimental value to the Japanese Army Officer who carried it as a badge of rank. 

The Blade is in good polish.  It is 26 inches long and has a wavy temper line that is still visible after all these years.   The mounts are of high quality with a cross hatched copper colored Habaki.  There is one small neckbone nick in the blade otherwise it is flawless.  This is the traditional samurai sword which started life as a bucket of iron rich sand and was created by skilled craftsmen into a masterful work of art.  You will notice 3 peg holes in the tang which tell us it has been mounted 3 times over the centuries.

The Japanese Military Officers “Samurai” sword was the most prized war trophy of the Pacific War and it was an iconic symbol of the Japanese ethos of Warfare. When you think about this sword being approximately 400 years old, it was probably in existence when Jamestown was settled!  This ancient handmade piece of Steel would certainly capture anyone’s imagination!  I wonder how many people were hacked up by this beautiful thing over the years…