JAPANESE WORLD WAR II GUNTO KATANA, SEKI KANEHIDE.

64.4cm nagasa. Seki Kanehide was born in 1913 and his civilian name was Tanaka Isao. He studied under 12th generation Kawashima Masahide in 1928, and moved to Seki in 1937, where he started an apprenticeship with Watane Kanenaga, and became the head of the coaching section at Kanenaga's school. He opened his own company Seki Token Corp in 1941, and worked as a rikugun-jumei-tosho during the war. He was declared an intangible cultural property of Gifu, and died 1989. Slough devotes 2 pages to oshigata, and rates him at 2 million yen, with high to superior gendaito. This is a good example of one of his blades in a classic shinogi zukuri form with a maru boshi, choji hamon, some areas with jukachoji, and signed tachimei "Seki Kanehide Saku Kore" (trans: Seki Kanehide carefully made this) and dated on ura Showa 18 Month 12 (December, 1943), with star stamp on omote and a small stamp on ura between the characters for Showa, which appears to be a Seki acceptance stamp. Ha agari kurijiri nakagojiri. In traditional gunto mounts with floral designs and a brown-on-brown naval officers knot. CONDITION: Blade is out of polish, with hada obscured, but active choji hamon visible for the full length. Some areas of surface mossing and scratches throughout, but no chips or blisters observed. Mounts are very good with the expected surface level scratches and handling marks throughout. A very good example of a top quality wartime smith. Blade Length: 64.4cm Overall Length: 39"