Last March 21, 2014, we posted a photo on our Facebook page asking our fans if they know what it is. We gave a clue: solid brass fittings in sakura theme, iron saya in army green color with leather cover. Only a few people were able to guess it correctly. So it’s time to reveal the mystery item…
Geisha’s Blade, the Philippines Online Samurai Sword Shop, is proud to announce that we will be having an almost exact replica of a Type 98 Shin Gunto used by the Imperial Japanese Army during WWII. We decided to offer this sword because we’ve been seeing a lot of fakes that are being passed off as swords from WWII. Then there are real Japanese swords from WWII, but the prices are unbelievably high ranging from PHP 50,000 – PHP 100,000, but the condition is very poor: the blade is heavily rusted, some of the fittings are missing, the tsukamaki (handle wrapping) and saya are destroyed, etc. Not to mention that most of these swords have a machine made blade. To fully restore a sword in such condition would cost you more. If the sword has a believable provenance, that’s the only time a WWII memorabilia collector would pay for such amount for a badly damaged sword. For a sword collector, it’s not worth the price.
However with our version, not only are the fittings are an exact copy of an original Type 98 Shin Gunto, but the blade is truly hand forged and in perfect condition. The blade is made of hand forged, differentially hardened 1095 carbon steel, fully sharpened, and with real hamon. For the price, it will range between PHP 25,000 – PHP 30,000 and will probably be available by June/July. We might have 2 versions of this sword: one has an iron saya with a wooden core, while the other will just be purely made of wood. Both versions will have a genuine leather cover for the saya.
For now, please enjoy the photos below which is the prototype our forge has made. The fittings on this prototype are all made of solid brass and has an “aged” finish. But we’re planning on making the fittings like it’s brand new. It could either be copper plated or painted with reddish-brown paint like an original Type 98 Shin Gunto. The tsuka is wrapped in silk tsukaito with real ray skin panels. Please don’t mind the extremely long “tassel” on this prototype.
Color of the saya under natural light
We’re not big fans of Japanese WWII swords, because as previously mentioned, most of them have machine made blades. But since our version will have a hand forged blade, we’d definitely be keeping one for ourselves when this arrive!
Should you have any questions regarding this, feel free to post a comment below or send us an email info(at)geishasblade.com.