Please help witha European blade in a Japanese tachi mount

[Philip]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

As Great Britain was of course quite colonially present in Hong Kong and other Chinese locations near mid century of course, there are possibilities for such British blades to have filtered into these same trade networks.
I would note here that I have seen (but no longer have images) of a complete M1796 British M1796 heavy cavalry sword with Chinese markings on the hilt, which was I believe among captured arms during the "Boxer Rebellion' (1900).

I have a Korean 'peadao' (if I am correct on term) which as Philip has noted, would fall largely into the 'munitions' grade Korean arms made in mid 19thc possibly earlier. In this case, while the pommel cap and tsuba are quite simple, the grip is indeed wrapped and there is a habaki.
If I have understood correctly , after the Japanese take over in 1910, most Korean swords were destroyed.

I think there is a good case for this being a Korean use of this blade, whether British or German (I still feel it is British), and very likely c. mid century or slightly later. I think the cross on the reverse of the hilt is notably significant as well, considering the missionary circumstances in both China and Korea.

A Chinese-marked M1796 is not such an oddity considering that the Qing Dynasty was constantly at war with rebel and insurgent forces from the mid-19th cent. until its downfall. Arms merchants made fortunes importing weapons for all sides. The Manchu rulers were so strapped that during the Taiping Rebellion (which was far more destructive than the Boxer), the government utilized an ad-hoc force, the Ever-Victorious Army, ultimately led by Gen. Charles "Chinese" Gordon who later won laurels in the Sudan. Later in the century, Winchester printed a Chinese edition of its catalog, and wealthy merchants in the Canton area equipped their home town militias with better rifles than the Peking garrisons had. Krupp and Mauser also made a ton of money selling cannon and rifles not only to the Qing but the Ottomans as well.

The Korean munition-grade saber in the images you posted is a hwando, and indeed, most of those are wrapped with cloth braid. But there were other types of Korean saber, such as the mun'gwando and the byeolun'geom which mostly had unwrapped grips, surfaced with either bare ray skin or polished hardwood. The Korean version of the habaki is readily distinguished in form from the Chinese tunkou. Also it is of simpler construction than the original Japanese and doesn't seal the mouth of the scabbard as efficiently.

I don't know what to make of the cruciform pattern of the rayskin pieces under the central grip fitting. If it were a clandestine symbol, it is not as subtle as one would expect. Rather roughly executed, though perhaps not too out of place considering the overall level of craftsmanship elsewhere.

As I recall, Japan relaxed its proscriptions on Christianity not long after its opening to the West. Catholic and Eastern Orthodox missions were founded in the late 19th cent., and American Protestants were active as well. (I once read an article in an encyclopedia that the two wheeled people-powered cab called a jinriksha (rickshaw) was invented by one of these enterprising Yankee preachers, considering that Japan had a shortage of horses.)

Be that as it may, the kingdom of Korea was extremely hostile towards foreigners and the Christian faith. Outsiders were not tolerated in the country, and beliefs outside the scope of Buddhism, the native shamanism, and the official Confucian socio-political orthodoxy were savagely persecuted. This paralleled similar hostility, combined with persecution and massacres, in China (1890s-1900), Japan (persecution and closure of country, 17th cent.), and Vietnam (mass martyrdom of Catholics during the early 19th cent.). Their rulers wanted to avoid a repeat of how the Portuguese humiliated the Sultan of Malacca, the Dutch and Spanish taking insular SE Asia, and Britain ultimately gulping up India. They were convinced by history that first come the merchants with their wares and the preachers with their religion, and after that the soldiers and cannon will finish the job, with their empires toppled or beholden to kings, queens, and a pope far away.