Sword gensui-to type with Japanese kogarasu-dzukuri XVII century blade

The article is devoted to the richly decorated gensui-to type sword. The famous Japanese smith Inoue Makai made the sword's blade in XVII century. For the present time this sword is a part of private collection (Moscow, Russia). Its richly decorated mount kit parts demonstrate the traditional sword's mount style kenukigata-tachi. Mount parts are made from wood, bronze, brass with gilding and silvering and traditional Japanese alloy. Some metal mount parts are made from copper, bronse and brass by casting. The relief and engravings of end cover plates and other decorated parts show us complete similarity with decorations of original Japanese gensui-to swords. Unlike the native Japanese gensui-to swords, mentioned above, represented in our article sword demonstrates differences and special features. It allow us to relate the sword with Manchukuo military elite. Authors of the article analyze gensui-to sword examples known in museum collections of Japan and Great Britain and history of such type of military swords with detailed description of its construction. Gensui-to swords are the most rare among military swords of Imperial Japan 1868-1945.