The anatomy of schin-gunto: exploring tachi style swords in imperial Japaneese army

The article is devoted to the phenomenon of military swords in Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) in 1930-1940s. The point of the author's interest is tachi styled shin-gunto sword for military Japanese officers. These swords were set as the main type of IJA officers side-arms in 1934 (Type 94) and renewed in 1938 (Type 98). Contrary to official descriptions and documents, there were serious differences in swords, including several types of blades, different dimensions etc. One of the most interesting facts described in the article is using of traditional samurai blades in regular schin-gunto mounts. The author gives here a description of two schin-gunto Type 98 examples, providing researchers with new information.