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Originally Posted by Chris Evans
No. That pic came out of F.J Norman's "The Fighting Man of Japan" published in 1905. Emperor Meiji died in 1912. The Showa era was from 1926 to 1989.
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Tachi and Katana were absolutely out of the game at this point, and by far.
The 2,5 centuries freeze in giapanese culture (Sakoku - chain the land)
left the Japan prostrated in front of almost everything came from west.
The adaptation of ancient sowrds to modern fittings gave us many strange examples of re-adapted weapons, being the remounting not a matter of
functionality rather a matter of tradition and proudness. Many maintained two-hands-long handle even if in western mount and others had their shape further mutilated in losing the curvature.
3rd picture is a comparative one with mass-production cavalry saber showed interestingly with the horseman, giving us the scale of the dimensions, grip and curvature. The horse here is smaller (seems a Kagoshima breed from Kyushu, the second FROM BOTTOM in my earlier list, see my previous post) then the one presented in your previous picture as many "everyday use horses" for non-officers weren't as tall as the ones for official pictures (but cheaper).
Seems japanese officers needed better mountings to not be dwarfed by their conterpart. All pictures from Fuller and Gregory's "Military Swords of Japan 1868-1945" ISBN 0 85368 796 x
English military trainer were of paramount importance in several aspect of the re-building of the Imperial forces. They were taken in so high esteem that 3 of them, being killed in the Russo/japanese war were, and still are, enshrined in the Yasukuni Jinja being the first and only westerner to be allowed to this.
The matter of value in fencing between katana and western blades is and will always be a huge can of warms that's preferable to leave to martial artists of both cultures.