Japanese tachi (Military fighting sword), the hilt of the tachi consists of two pieces of magnolia wood joined together longitudinally to form the grip. The wooden grip is covered on each side by a fillet of white ray-skin, and is bound with two flat pieces of gold-coloured cotton tape twisted about each other. The plain brass ferrule (fuchi) is secured to the end of the handle by two brass pins. A brass button passes through the reverse side of the ferrule (fuchi) to operate a spring, which retains the tachi in its scabbard. The hilt ornaments are brass. The brass pommel (kabuto-gane) is decorated with a double ogee outline and is pierced on each face to show the ray-skin below. The steel blade is slightly curved, single-edged, with a ridge running near the back to within 38mm of the medium curved-edge point. The blade is round-backed and is fitted with a brass collar (habaki) at the shoulder. Neither the obverse nor the reverse of the blade is engraved and there are no temper lines. The wooden scabbard is covered with black leather and has a brass throat, with lockets with rings, an ornamental ring and chape. Small brass pins secure all of the brass parts of the tachi except for the ring. The lockets are roughly pear-shaped and pierced each side by a triangular hole.

The tachi is probably factory-produced, as the workmanship is poor and far inferior to the other tachi's in the National Maritime Museum's collection. The hilt is glued to the tang so it has not been possible to remove it without the possibility of causing damage to the tachi and for this reason it has not been possible to study the hilt and the tang as fully as is usual. The Imperial Japanese Navy favoured blue and black scabbards so this tachi may be that of a Petty Officer. The tachi was surrendered in September 1945 at Singapore and given to HMS 'Ganges' by Captain E.V. Bush (active 1946) on Victory Day 1946.