WW2 Japanese Navy Officer's Kai-Gunto Katana Unsigned Blade (sold)

A high grade Imperial Japanese naval officer's kai-gunto with earlier unsigned blade.

This is a well above average grade Japanese kai-gunto; the mounts have a full set of seppa and 3 part tsuba, the blade has a very active hamon, and the saya / scabbard is rayskin. So why am I selling it for so little money? Because the end of the saya including the ishizuke are missing and the blade is need of a polish. But, let me say this with 100% sincerity, if you are prepared to spend around 550 GBP more on this sword to have the blade professionally polished and the saya end repaired, you would have a Kai Gunto far in excess quality wise of virtually any other. Kai Guntos generally have machine made blades and often low grade fittings, as most quality kai guntos of course ended up at the bottom of the ocean. This is a genuinely rare example of a high quality sword and particularly blade.

The 22 1/2 inch blade (excludes habaki) has an active hamon with visible nioi and I suspect nie as well. A full set of seppa, etc. Quality all over. The unsigned blade with two nakago-ana (tang peg holes), a sure sign this is a family / hereditary blade remounted into military naval mounts. Further / full sized images upon request. My item reference number is 804 (354).