Beauty. I've got a very similar one, with a lion (or tiger?) hilt (no dangler but there is a round hole behind the teeth); very similar carving, and with what I'm pretty sure is "1940" inlaid in brass in the blade (mind you the numerals ain't exactly standard, but I'm pretty sure that's what it says). Glad to see the sheath
The handle is on mine, as on another fairly similar, though somewhat less so, with an iron rivet (one is visibly an industrial waffle head nail) about 1 1/8" back from the blade. My lion hilt one has a wide(ish) and narrow groove, while the other is plain. Both have a tip and a humped cross-section reminiscent of nihon-to, though the blades start narrow, get wider, and one stays wide while the other tapers back down. Yes, there's a pic in my camera; yes, I will develop it soon
