Hello to you all and I want to first thank you again for allowing me to be added to your fine community! I have, recently, been investigating a mystery that has taken me back through time to uncover as much as I can about a sword that is now in my families possession. It was recommended that I check here next, so here we go!
The Story (before another webpage put me on the right track):
My Grandfather received this sword from a Japanese officer during WW2 that he saved. The story goes that after saving the life of said officer, the officer gifted this sword to him as thanks stating it was in his family for "generations", passed from "hand to hand of each military son for generations", and was "ancient".
Since then:
I have discovered (since the story) that the sword is "blade" is VOC (pictures included). Here is a link to the conversation I have had with some great members at another site:
http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/viewt...p?f=15&t=18647
What I am curious about is if any member here has any further information they may be able to shed light on for me. I have exhausted every resource that I can think of in terms of museums, colleges, VOC ship manifests (thank you University of Copenhagen) and the like and the consensus seems to be:
1) Sword combination is rare
2) Nobody has seen that combination before on any VOC weapon (in terms of culture clash).
Again, I thank you for your time and consideration in any insight you may be able to give me into this weapon as I am enjoying this hunt for historical mystery.
Okay, let's get right to it and show you guys the pictures!