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Old 29th May 2009, 09:10 AM   #3
Amuk Murugul
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Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Kaboejoetan Galoenggoeng Mélben
Posts: 460
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Hullo everybody,

Akum HangPC2.

The sword in your picture apparently follows the katana form. Samurai-type swords were popular among Occidental travellers/'tourists' during the 19thC. This induced some local foundaries in the archipelago to manufacture them. One such enterprise was in the Soenda village of Tjikeroeh (Tatar Soenda/Pasoendan/Parahijangan), which started to produce them in the 1850s. (This tapered off in the 1890s, when Tjikeroeh switched to producing the more-familiar scimitar/sabre/cutlass -style swords.)
During the Japanese occupation, local militias/heiho were allowed to train using real edged-weapons but wooden firearms. Needless to say, a lot of these edged-weapons which were newly-produced, were samurai-type.
I have attached pix of such swords in my collection (apologies for the poor quality).The one on top is inscribed in Arabic along the blade and date-stamped 1945-46. The bottom one has the guard embossed with GPII (Gerakan Pemoeda Islam Indonesia) and dated 1946.

Best,
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