What's new

Katana certificate help please

EBRWorks

後輩
29 Jun 2021
11
5
3
I have a number of swords and this certificate came with them. I have no idea which sword it goes with. Any assistance appreciated. Apologies in advance if the images are not oriented correctly. Thanks very much!
cricket 1.jpg

cricket 2.jpg
 
It goes with a sword that is 70 cms long, with a curvature of 2 cms, and one peg hole. The sword is mumei (no signature).
Measure the sword from tip to the notch where the tsuba rests (called the "machi").
 
Yes, that's it. I don't know how hard it is to imprint steel with these characters but in general the shape is quite poor on all of them. Maybe not done by a Japanese person.
 
It seems that this isn't a certificate so much as a registration for a katana, dated October 21, Showa 52 (1977), from the 兵庫県教育委員会... Hyogo Prefecture... board of education? I wouldn't have thought that they would be the governing body over weapons (it seems this registration card could also be used for firearms?), maybe this blade belonged to a school or something? Perhaps it was either for an iaido/kenjutsu club? Could explain why it's unsigned, if it's just a training blade for a high schooler or something.

The stuff on the back is rules for the registration card. For expediency, I ran it through OCR, and Google translate does a fair-enough job on it:

JapaneseEnglish
一、銃砲又は刀剣類を携帯し、又は運搬する場合には、常に登録証を携帯していなければならない。

一、銃砲又は刀剣類を譲り渡し、貸し付け、若しくはこれらの保管の委託をし、 又はこれらを他人をして運送させる場合には、常に登録証とともにしなければ ならない。銃砲又は刀剣類を譲り受け、借り受け、又はこれらの保管の委託を 受ける場合も、また同様とする。

一、銃砲又は刀剣類とともにする場合を除いては、登録証を譲り渡し、又は蹴り受けてはならない。

一、登録証を亡失し、若しくは盗み取られ、又はこれが滅失した場合には速やか にその旨を登録の事務を行った都道府県の教育委員会に届け出て登録証の再交 付を受けなければならない。

一、銃砲又は刀剣類を亡失し、盗み取られ、若しくはこれが滅失し、又はこれら を輸出した場合には、速やかに登録証を登録の事務を行った都道府県の教育委 員会に返納しなければならない。

一、銃砲又は刀剣類を譲り受け、若しくは相続により取得し、又はこれらの貸し 付け、若しくは保管の委託をした場合には、二十日以内にその旨を登録の事務 を行った都道府県の教育委員会に届け出なければならない。貸し付け又は保管 の委託をした銃砲又は刀剣類の返還を受けた場合においても、また同様とする。

一、以上の各事項に違反した場合は、法により懲役又は罰金の刑に処せられるこ ととなる。
1. When carrying or carrying guns or swords, you must always carry your registration card.

1. When handing over, lending, or entrusting the storage of guns or swords, or having others carry them, he must always carry them with his registration certificate. The same shall apply when taking over, borrowing, or entrusting the storage of guns or swords.

1. You must not hand over or kick your registration certificate unless you are using it with a gun or sword.

1. If the registration certificate is lost or stolen, or if it is lost, you must promptly notify the prefectural board of education that performed the registration work and receive a reissue of the registration certificate. It doesn't become.

1. If a gun or sword is lost, stolen, or lost, or exported, the registration certificate must be promptly returned to the prefectural education committee that performed the registration work. Must be.

1. If you take over or acquire guns or swords by inheritance, or if you lend or entrust the storage of these, the prefectural board of education who registered the fact within 20 days. You must notify the board of education. The same shall apply when the gun or swords that have been outsourced for loan or storage are returned.

If you violate any of the above items, you will be sentenced to imprisonment with work or a fine by law.

What is the translation on the steel characters, if possible?
えでのか (edenoka) doesn't mean anything by itself, AFAIK. Is that all there is on the blade?
 
Last edited:
It's the standard registration card/certificate that are required for all swords and guns. These are issued by the Boards of Education in each prefecture. The registration cards themselves are unsigned (they carry the red seal of the issuig B of E). The thing that is unsigned is the sword itself. In the column marked 銘文 you can see it says 無銘 (mumei). It just means there is no signature on the sword.

Since the sword pictured in posts #3 and #5 do indeed have a marking on them, this would have been noted in the registration card. So we can assume that the registration card doesn't go with the sword pictured. OR, the markings were added after the sword had already been registered.

Note that replica swords, and swords for iaido do no require registration unless they are traditionally made swords (using tamahagane steel).

And, as everyone else has said, the markings on the sword have no meaning. They are gibberish.
 
Yep, that's all there is on that blade.

We have a total of 8 katanas in the batch, so the card could have been associated with any of them. It also might be from a katana that we did not receive. They came from the estate of a deceased celebrity. His son dropped of a load of around 150 items for auction with us, so we're still working through identifying many of the items, including antique and modern firearms, swords, knives and other militaria. Here's a hint of whose collection these came from: ;)

fmj.jpg
 
Yep, that's all there is on that blade.

We have a total of 8 katanas in the batch, so the card could have been associated with any of them. It also might be from a katana that we did not receive. They came from the estate of a deceased celebrity. His son dropped of a load of around 150 items for auction with us, so we're still working through identifying many of the items, including antique and modern firearms, swords, knives and other militaria. Here's a hint of whose collection these came from: ;)

View attachment 46870
LOL less a hint and more telling us exactly whose estate it was.

RIP Gunny.
 
Well, I didn't want to tease you!

He was an avid collector of simply everything military related. We did an auction series in 2019 of the first batch of items from his estate. There were some really interesting items and many others not so interesting. 99% of the current items will be on GunBroker, as before, later this year.

I really appreciate the help! Thanks so much.
 
After the war, the US's original intention was to confiscate all weapons being held by the Japanese. Then, after some lobbying by some well-respected sword scholars and collectors, it was decided to divide swords into two groups: "art swords" and "weapon swords". Anything traditionally made and of historic value would be deemed an art sword, and that sword would then be issued a license. Anything other than an art sword was deemed a weapon, and those couldn't be licensed and the owners were asked to turn them over to the authorities. The BofE falls under the jurisdiction of the old Mombusho (ministry of culture, etc.). I think the idea at the time was to draw a very hard line around antiques/art, and weapons.
 
Don't worry about the certificate. Nowadays, this certificate is turned in to the Ministry of Culture when you export a sword out of Japan. So most swords outside of Japan don't have/need this piece of paper. It adds no value to the sword, and it is of not much use in providing any background history to the sword. Also, if the sword ever comes back to Japan, the authorities will issue it a new certificate. So consider it of little historical value no matter which sword it goes with.

But, as I mentioned before, if you have any swords that measure 70cms from tip to notch, and are unsigned, and have only one peg hole, and have a 2cm curvature, I think you can be pretty confident that this card goes with that sword.
 
I measured them all and none are 70cm exactly. Thanks for helping solve this minor mystery pertaining to the cert!

I now just need to research each blade to find out if each is a replica, tourist trinket or something of value.
 
Good luck with your research, seems like anything that's undocumented or unidentifiable now gets its historical value from its association with Mr. Ermey, especially if you can establish how they came into his possession.
 
Yes, each item will include a certificate of authenticity, signed by his son and notarized. The majority of items are just average things he collected randomly, whereas some have interesting histories and are pure gold to some collectors. For example, this knife was in the first auction series in 2019:

front in sheath.JPG

rt1.JPG
 
Back
Top Bottom