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Aviator Sword

Submitted by nyc448 on Wed, 2016-07-06 20:28

Hello Pete,

I have this military sword, a sword that used to belong to a Japanese aviator during WWII, that I think is remarkable.
As I understand some Japanese men, mostly officers, who participated in the war, brought along with them swords that belong to their families for generations. This sword appears to me to be one of them.
The sword measures only 32 inches, and its cutting edge is 23.5 inches. Aviator swords were smaller than the standard Japanese Army Officer's swords. The reason I think the sword is rather remarkable is its thickness and weight. The tang thickness is 9.36mm, and the thickness of the sword three inches up its cutting edge 9.28mm. The blade alone weighs a whooping 2.96 lbs. It weighs more than any other sword blades that I have that are longer.
It is signed as shown in the photo, but, I don't know who the swordsmith is. I guess, I could try to look it up to find out who that is at some point.

Here are photos of it, for your looking pleasure.

Lou

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#1Submitted by saipan59 on Wed, 2016-07-06 22:04.

wak

Hi Lou,
Yes, some officers brought "family" swords when they went to war. Those that didn't have one would sometimes buy one, and I think some guys were "issued" a sword. Every officer needed to have one...
Do you know for a fact that it belonged to an aviator? I ask because: Just because it's fairly short doesn't mean that it's an aviator's sword.
I can see that it's been shortened, and it looks like much of the signature is gone.
A picture that shows the entire tang would be helpful.

Pete
#2Submitted by nyc448 on Wed, 2016-07-06 23:59.

Tang

Pete,

The person that I purchased the sword from is also a retired US Army officer, a Colonel, who is also a military weapons collector. The Colonel told me that he had gotten the sword from the family of the soldier who brought the sword from the war. The WWII soldier, who is no longer with us, had said that the sword used to belong to an aviator.

Here are two photos of the tang from two different angles.

Lou
#3Submitted by saipan59 on Thu, 2016-07-07 02:39.

no name

The remaining part of the signature is something like "BINGO (no) KAMI...". Not sure about the BINGO, but it doesn't matter much without the name.
The actual name is the part that was cut off.
Other than the sandpaper damage, it looks pretty good.

Pete