Samurai Sword. John M. Yumoto

      INTRODUCTION

      THIS HANDBOOK on Japanese swords was conceived by John M. Yumoto to aid collectors in the knowledge and preservation of these treasures.

      John Masayuki Yumoto was born on January 30, 1916, the second son of (Father) Yohei and (Mother) Koshio in Fresno, CA. In 1919 his family moved to Okayama, Japan, where he attended school.

      When Yumoto was 5½ years of age, his paternal grandfather arranged and directed his sword education.

      Yumoto Sensei’s grandfather was a lover-respecter of Nihonto to the extent that in his backyard was a bundle of swords that were going to be shipped to China. He, instead, purchased them and brought them home. The grandson was furnished with a live-in instructor who had a collection of swords. He had daily instruction in appreciating and identifying swords. This involved recognizing the geographic site of origin, the era of manufacture, and possibly even the exact smith who made the sword. When he had mastered this to the instructor’s satisfaction, he was taken around the neighborhood to see the swords in the possession of local families. His grandfather then arranged for him to go to a sword polisher’s home to learn that skill. Such an apprenticeship involved living with the teacher as a member of his family. This arrangement lasted until the late fall when persimmons at home were ripe and none were available at the polisher’s residence, so homesickness over-came the desire to learn. He was then sent to study fittings for swords. This instructor furnished Yumoto with a large box of menuki and told him to sort all of those into two piles, those that were better and those poorer in quality. When this was done and discussed, they were again mixed and he was told to sort them into piles of best, medium, and poorest. After this was mastered, he was told that now he understood quality in all fittings, whether menuki, kogai, fushi-koshira, kozuka, or tsuba.

      His grandfather next arranged a time with a maker of fittings. Here he learned the basics of fabrication and patination from the master. When he was old enough he was encouraged to buy and sell swords. While away from home for schooling, he plied this trade successfully.

      During his time in Kyoto at college, which trained officers for the military (roughly the equivalent of West Point or Annapolis), his father and grandfather became concerned that the nation of Japan, under the influence of militarily ambitious officials, was heading to war. They advised Yumoto Sensei to return to the United States and arranged passage on a ship as a lowest class passenger. Yumoto then went, as we would say, AWOL from the military college to board ship. Military officials searched the exact ship for him, but did not dream he would be among the cheapest section of passengers. He, therefore, was never found. He spent the passage gambling unsuccessfully and arrived poorer, but happy, in California where he found work as a photographer for a local newspaper and promptly enrolled in school, primarily to learn proper English, and finished high school there.

      At the time of Pearl Harbor all of John’s loyalty was to the United States—the land of his birth and sympathy. Notwithstanding, Executive Order 9066 compelled Japanese-Americans to be gathered and interned and eventually to be moved from coastal areas. Tanforan Race Track in San Bruno, California, became “home” for him and his new wife Vickie.

      On June 30, 1942, he was visited by an Officer of Naval Intelligence and abruptly sent off alone to Boulder, Colorado. Vickie was eventually allowed to join him there where he had become part of a newly established Japanese Language project. He had been recruited because of his innate skills as a teacher and his unique experiences as a teacher of the Japanese language and customs to Naval officers. Initially, his job was to train Americans in how to interrogate Japanese prisoners.

      As the language program expanded, he and Vickie were moved to Stillwater, Oklahoma where their first child Kathleen was born. Eventually, with the consolidation of the language program after the war, they were moved to Fort Ord in Monterey, California, where son Ted was born and where Yumoto Sensei continued teaching at the Navy Post-Graduate Language School.

      His