JAPANESE SWORD – 2 MILLION YEN GENDAITO BY KANEHIDE WITH INT...

Hammer

£3,400

JAPANESE SWORD – 2 MILLION YEN GENDAITO BY KANEHIDE WITH INTRIQUING SILVER MON
A superior quality gendaito, just over 26.5 inches long (67.4 cms nagasa), with fine itame jihada, sanbonsugi hamon and komaru boshi. See pages 41 to 42 of Modern Japanese Sword Smiths by Slough which rates Kanehide at 2 Million Yen. The nakago is signed Kanehide and is dated
Showa ju-go nen shichi gatsu kichi nichi meaning “A lucky day in July 1940”. This means the blade was made while Kanehide was the chief student of Watanabe Kanenaga at the Nihonto Tanren Juku and so would be his best work. After the war, Kanehide went on to make Shinsakuto
as recorded in the extract from the Nihinoto Meikan pictured below. The blade is mounted in Type
98 shingunto koshirae with the kabutogane bearing a silver mon with the surname “Itaya”*. NOTE! A LCDR Shigeru Itaya was the flight leader of the first wave of Zero aircraft that attacked Pearl Harbour on 7th December 1941. An IJN pilot might have been expected to carry a kaigunto but it seems there were no specific regulations. See https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/29331-pilot-
sword/ - We are not saying 100 Percent the sword belonged to this man but because of the Surname (rare) and timing, there is a strong possibility.