Type 94 or Type 98 Guntō Fuchi

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Found during a survey at Camp Blanding near Starke, Clay County, Florida, this small copper ring is a fuchi that was attached at the base of a Japanese sword hilt and was part of a mechanism to release the blade from it’s scabbard. The cherry blossom design belongs to a Type 94 or 98 Guntō, a sword carried by a commissioned officer serving in the Imperial Japanese Army in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Now the primary reservation of the Florida National Guard, Camp Blanding functioned as an infantry replacement training base during the Second World War (1941-1945), as well as a detention center for German prisoners of war, and Japanese, Italian and German immigrant prisoners. This fuchi, was likely part of a souvenir brought back by an American soldier who served in the Pacific theatre.