A Simply Stunning Near 400 Year Old Bladed Ancestral 'Tsuda Clan' Officer's Sword, Signed Echizen Ju Sagami no Kami Fujiwara Kunitsuna, Of A Senior IJA Officer of WW2, Possibly Lt General Yoshitake Tsuda (津田美武)
A Beautiful Shinto katana bearing a fabulous ancestral antique blade has a stunningly extravagant sanbonsugi {three cedars} hamon, to resemble a row of three cryptomeria (cypress) treetops.
Cypress trees are indigenous to Japan and used in many Japanese gardens
The sword has been untouched since it was taken as a war trophy in 1945, and it is fitted in the traditional, full, type 94 metal mount's of an officer. Apparently it was surrendered in the Phillipines in WW2 . It was believed to be by the adjutant of Lt General Yoshitake Tsuda, General Commander of the 105th Inf. Div. in the Philippines, a division that fought at such as at Cagayan, during the Battle of Luzon. As far as research goes, no other senior officer of the samurai Tsuda clan served in the Philippines.
The tsuka, ito, giant rayskin samegawa, and all the mounts are very good, and matching numbered, stamped 45, with one of the menuki bearing a silver samurai clan mon {crest} of the samurai Tsuda clan, a vassal clan of the Oda clan.
The blade shows the superb skills of the smiths from the Echizen School. Nice curvature, combined with the healthy width create a wonderful shape for an very nice example of a finest Shinto piece. Two hole mekugi ana nakago with nice patina. Kunitsuna was one of the smiths that worked in the Echizen Shimosaka mon.
He was called Tahyoeinojo and he worked during the Kanbun era.
One of the more noted Tsuda clan samurai commanders, and head of the Sohei warrior monks of the Tsuda clan, was Tsuda Kazunaga (津田算長)
Kazunaga Tsuda (1499 - January 22 or 23, 1568) was a busho (Japanese military commander) in the Sengoku period. Kenmotsu Tsuda. Kazunaga Suginobo who had a younger brother Taekazu Tsuda, and his children included Kazumasa Tsuda, Shozan Suginobo and Arinao Tsuda.
He claimed to be a descendant of Kusunoki clan founded by Masanobu Tsuda. He was a lord of Hanzaki-jo Castle in Kii Province. He was the head of sohei (warrior monks) in Negoro-ji Temple, and he was the founder of 'Tsuda-ryu hojutsu' (gunnery of Tsuda school).
He travelled to Tanegashima Island and bought a Tanegashima teppo matchlock gun from the feudal lord Tokitaka Tanegashima, and made Seiemon Shibatsusuji, a craftsman, to reproduce the (teppo). Because Kazunaga introduced gunnery to Kansai region, Kii Province, typically Sakai City, which became a place of significant production of samurai matchlocks.
The signed blade, is by Echizen Ju Sagami no Kami Fujiwara Kunitsuna, circa 1650 of the Shimosaka School of smiths.
Kanbun goro 1600's
Katana signed " Sagami no Kami Fujiwara Kunitsuna. on the omote
Echizen Ju on the ura
(1st kunitsuna from around 1650) Hawleys KUN 1604. A member of the Shimosaka school.
The Battle of Luzon was a land battle of the Pacific Theatre of Operations of World War II by the Allied forces of the U.S., {under the command of General MacArthur} its colony the Philippines, and allies, against forces of the Empire of Japan. The battle resulted in a U.S. and Filipino victory. The Allies had taken control of all strategically and economically important locations of Luzon by March 1945, although pockets of Japanese resistance held out in the mountains until the unconditional surrender of Japan. While not the highest in U.S. casualties, it is the highest net casualty battle U.S. forces fought in World War II, with 192,000 to 217,000 Japanese combatants dead (mostly from starvation and disease), 8,000 American combatants killed, and over 150,000 Filipinos, overwhelmingly civilians who were murdered by Japanese forces, mainly during the Manilla massacre of February 1945.
The blade is in superb condition, {with just one tiny surface mark}, 28.8 inches long from tsuba to tip. overall 40.75 inches long in its saya,
The blade is in superb condition, {with just one tiny surface mark}, 28.8 inches long from tsuba to tip. overall 40.75 inches long in its saya
It was acquired by a USAAF officer in the Philippines, he married an English girl while stationed in the UK, and he stayed here in the UK since then, till he passed away . We acquired it from his descended family.
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Code: 25118