2 tank officers katana's (opinions welcome)

[rood]

Hello Gentlemen,

I purchased two short katana's for tank crew or pilots. The bottom one is of a dutch intelligence officer who took it back from the dutch-indies. The top one the backstory is unknown.

Could you take a look at these swords and give me your opinions, and could someone please translate the signature on the bottom sword.

Thanks in advance!

[rood]

Bottom sword:

[rood]

Top sword on the photo:

[GHP]

小島国房
Kojima Kunifusa

Real name:
小島 勇三
Kojima Yūzō


A sword of his in good polish can be seen here.



--Guy

[rood]

Thank you very much for the time to look it up for me!

[GHP]

Thank you very much for the time to look it up for me!

My pleasure.

--Guy

[Jareth]

Just because they are short swords doesn't mean they're tanker nor pilot. Could simply be a short individual or just using a family blade

[Rod G]

Just because they are short swords doesn't mean they're tanker nor pilot. Could simply be a short individual or just using a family blade

Like an old o-wakizashi blade. These are often seen in all manner of Japanese military swords.

[rood]

Thanks for the info. So the top one is a family sword?

[Steve Flanagan]

Tanker swords

Yep you have to be careful with the Tanker or Kamikazi attribution. Often times less than honest dealers will put very short blades in gunto mounts and shorten the scabbards, concealing their work with leather combat covers. There was one down in Texas who was very good at shortening the metal scabbards as well.

[rood]

Yep you have to be careful with the Tanker or Kamikazi attribution. Often times less than honest dealers will put very short blades in gunto mounts and shorten the scabbards, concealing their work with leather combat covers. There was one down in Texas who was very good at shortening the metal scabbards as well.

Thanks for the warning. These came not from a dealer

[Bob Coleman]

Thanks for the info. So the top one is a family sword?

Just because an officer carried an older hand forged blade does not make it a "family sword." This is collector lore that is not necessarily correct. Military officers could purchase an older blade from a sword dealer and have it mounted for military wear. In the case of IJA officers, many were not from the samurai class so they would not have a "family" katana. Edo period wakizashi were very reasonably priced during the war period-especially an unsigned example with forging flaws. I agree with the comments that wearing of a wakizashi does not automatically make it a pilot or tanker officer sword.

[rood]

Thanks for the information. I'm really content with these swords