Murata Tsuneyoshi was a General in the Meiji era (1868-1912) Imperial Japanese Army. Murata’s claim to fame was his invention of Japan’s first bolt action rifle which carried his name.Once his rifle was fully employed by the Japanese military he turned his engineering efforts to the design and manufacture of swords. Experimenting with different steel from around the world he decided upon Swedish powdered steel. Teaching himself the art of sword smithing he took on the artistic name of Kanemasa and made his swords himself.Highly desired as a cross collectable this “gadget” cane measuring a total length of 36” contains a 21 ¼” concealed blade in the shape of one of Japan’s most famous and oldest swords named kogarasu maru. Topping this cane is a silver knob containing a working compass. The unscrewing of this knob revels a nut. When unscrewed the blade can be removed. One side of the tang is signed Murata Kanesaka and upon the other is the date Meji 26(1893) along with a Stylized number 5 and the numbers 327.