WW II JAPANESE OFFICER SAMURAI SWORD SIGNED w/DRAGON & BONJI ENGRAVING OWNER TAG

Description

A original WW2 Japanese Officer's Samurai sword. This is a nice Gendaito signed 兼継 (KANETSUGU). The cutting edge of blade is 26 7/8" or 68.3cm. the moto haba - 1 1/4" or 31mm, saki haba 7/8" or 22mm. Also the blade has a nice "Bizen sori". The blade having been adorned with the engraving of a 3-toed dragon chasing the flaming pearl on the omote and a Buddhist Bonji character on the ura. It is very scarce to find authentic WWII samurai swords with any engraving let alone 2. The hamon is visible and is gunome / midare with the medium kissaki having a komaru boshi with long turnback. Hamon is in nioi-deki and the hada a very tight koitame. Blade surface has some staining but this could be polished to perfection if one wishes. I've never done a thing but keep it as /how I acquired it. NO nicks, NOT bent,NO hagire NO fatal flaws whatsoever. The saya is wood w/a nice black leather boot and 2 rings for hanger. A brass habaki w/3 seppa. The iron tsuba has a long stem like plant engraving and is signed : ー利 but cannot guarantee the name. Fuchi/kashira are copper /shakudo with 3-5-3 palownia petal design and partial mitsudomoe or circled 3 comma mon. Menuki also copper / shakudo Pheonix Bird. The golden/brown ito and "same" are excellent.
Kanetsugu is noted in Slough's Gendai book Page 71 and rates as 1 million Y smith. He is also noted in the Nihonto Meikan P. 153.
His real name is Imai Kenzaburo, During WW II he served as a Rikugun Jumei Tosho. Kanetsugu died Feb 6, 1971 age 77. Made medium to high grade Gendaito. Kanetsugu took 3rd Seat at the 1941 Sword Exhibition.
The surrender tag is very faded but written in kanji and English.
総武線笹川駅成田線 SOBU-SEN SASAGAWA-EKI NARITA-SEN
千葉県番取郡 府馬 CHIBA-KEN, KATORI-GUN , FUMA
平野 章? HIRANO (family name) (not able to read the last kanji and therefore unable to translate his "given" name).
This seems a odd surrender tag as it reads like train directions to his hometown but no actual street /residential address: Sobu-RR line, Sasagawa -station, Narita-RR line, Chiba-prefecture, Katori-county, Fuma-city. and his name ? Hirano.
Acquired from a US Army veteran who lived in Madison, Indiana around 1986 and never before offered.
IMO, a very fine example of a WW2 IJA Officer's sword (his BUSHIDO companion) and will be a nice addition to any WW2 /Japanese samurai sword collection AND a good investment.
NOTE: I've put shipping with FULL INSURANCE ! CAN'T TRUST THE USPS FOR JUST PRIORITY SHIPPING - LOSING PACKAGES AND/OR NEVER BEING DELIVERED IS THE "NEW NORM" !!