Gents,

I picked up a nice Japanese Cavalry Officer Sword at a local gun show this weekend. It is the Russo-Japanese War style made after 1886.

The sword has a plated machine made blade with a false Hamon along the edge. The sword is uncleaned and unmessed with and the blade is in very nice condition.

The interesting thing is that the grip is made of horn instead of sharkskin and the blade is peened at the pommel. The hilt retains a considerable amount of gilt.

Here is a veiw of the only marking found on the sword. Any idea of who the maker is?

A hard to find variant! Nice sword. Often overlooked or misidentified!

Thanks Jareth. You are quite right about mis-identification. The seller also had a common company grade Army parade sword and he thought that this was simply a variation of the parade saber and had priced it $100 less than the more common sword. It made this one underpriced and the common sword overpriced, so it worked out well for me.

I have seen Toyoda maker markings on the underside of the guard but I am unfamiliar with the "YE" maker mark. Any ideas who this mark may represent?