This Imperial Japanese Navy Model 1883 pattern officer’s dirk is a regulation-style IJN officer’s dress dagger. The grip is covered in genuine white samegawa with a spiral gilt wire wrap and applied copper sakura ornaments. The gilt brass fittings are ornately worked with sakura and foliage decoration over textured nanako-style backgrounds, with dual suspension rings and the original locking catch. The factory-produced carbon-steel blade retains a faint hamon or temper-line appearance, but shows old oxidation and considerable period or postwar abrasive cleaning from sanding. The tang is unsigned and unmarked, with its original transverse floral screw and mekugi assembly. The dirk is complete with its decorated scabbard. Overall it is a complete and attractive example with particularly well worked fittings, showing honest age and wear.
The Imperial Japanese Navy officer’s dirk was carried in this pattern from 1883 until 1945, and the form derives from the traditional tanto of Japan’s samurai past. Commissioned officers regarded their dirks as personal possessions rather than as mere uniform accessories. Standard features of the pattern include a tapering grip with a spiral groove and brass wire binding, brass fittings decorated with cherry blossom motifs, a pommel cap with a raised cherry blossom, and a crossguard with inversed ends, while the blade is secured to the hilt by a male and female screw system whose heads serve as the menuki. Scabbards carry two gilded brass mounts decorated to match the hilt, with opposing hanging rings and a blade release catch. Blades on these dirks were factory made, and the wave or temper line seen on them is commonly an acid etched pattern rather than the hamon of a traditionally forged blade, which is why such a line is described here by its appearance.
Specifications
Type: Officer’s dirk, tanken
Pattern: Model 1883
Service: Imperial Japanese Navy
Country of origin: Japan
Grip: Genuine white samegawa with spiral gilt wire wrap and applied copper sakura ornaments
Fittings: Gilt brass, sakura and foliage decoration over nanako-style ground, dual suspension rings, original locking catch
Blade: Factory produced carbon steel, faint hamon or temper-line appearance
Blade condition: Old oxidation, considerable period or postwar abrasive cleaning from sanding
Tang: Unsigned and unmarked, with original transverse floral screw and mekugi assembly
Scabbard: Decorated, complete
