Earlier this year, I had a call from a cousin who wanted to give me two Japanese Arisaka rifles that his Dad, my Uncle, had brought back from WWII. He was a Naval officer on a tanker and they were anchored in Tokyo Bay during the time of the surrender. At some point, he and the other officers went ashore and it is believed it was at that time that he picked up the two rifles and three Type 39 bayonets from the piles of surrendered military items.
They say that the memory is the first thing to go, and I guess that probably applies here. For well over 65 years, the two rifles hung over my Uncle’s fireplace. It had been years since I had looked at them and I was under the belief that both were Type 99 rifles. Well . . . I was wrong.
Both rifles are Type 38 Arisaka rifles. In researching them, I came up with the following.
Both rifles are in very good condition. They have some minor stock dents, etc. but are in far better than the average rifles that saw heavy service. Once I got the dust and cobwebs out of the bores, both rifles have excellent bores with bright and heavy rifling. The exterior of both rifles retain their original metal finish. Both rifles show the typical Type 38 markings on the top of the receiver and both retain the Japanese Imperial “Mum”. One rifle has the original heavy webbing/leather sling and each has the original “dust covers”. It is obvious that once my Uncle picked up the rifles, they were well greased as far as the magazine followers, bolts, etc. and he never fired them.
I have owned “Mil-surp” rifles – at one time I had five different varieties of Type 99 Arisaka Rifles as well as a number of British 303 Enfields, etc. (which I sold years ago) What struck me with these two Type 38 rifles is how well made they are and I look forward to getting the years of dust, etc. cleaned off of them and being able to shoot both with plinking rounds.
Now for the surprise that awaited me as I researched markings. The Type 38 was adopted in 1905. Originally, the Type 38 was first produced in the Koishikawa Arsenal (Tokyo). From the adoption of the Type 38 in 1905, until about 1935. The rifles produced in this Arsenal were “consective serial numbered”. The Type 38 (at the above Arsenal) started with Serial Number 1 and it is believed that a total of 2,209,000 were produced from the adoption of the model until around 1935. Around 1935, when other Arsenals started producing the Type 38 rifles, the “Series” classification smd method of serial numbering was adopted. (A "series" contained rifles serial numbered from 1 to 99,999/100,000 and then a new "Series" was started with the same serial numbers of from 1 to 99,999)
The two Type 38 rifles that I have are clearly stamped with the marking for the Koishikawa Arsenal (Tokyo). One of the rifles is marked with the serial number of “67” and the other rifle bears the serial number “210”. These markings and serial numbers would put these two Type 38 Arisaka Rifles as being among the first produced at the Koishikawa Arsenal (Tokyo) – very likely late in 1905 or early 1906 – among the very first produced at that Arsenal among the total of over two million Type 38s produced there prior to around 1935.
While there is no way of knowing, with them being among the first Type 38s produced at the Tokyo Arsenal, I can’t help but wonder if the first rifles were issued to something like the “Palace Guard” or similar and possibly they remained there until the end of World War II at which time they were surrendered and tossed into a pile of rifles that U.S. Officers and others, like my Uncle, selected souvenirs from to take home.nnA scenario such as that would explain the fine condition that the rifles are in as opposed to those showing wear from battle use.
The three bayonets that I received with the rifles also show very little use. All are in their original metal scabbards and two of them retain the original leather “frogs” that are in very good shape – the frogs show some slight wear from being worn on a belt, but nothing like I have seen on originals that were carried and used hard that I have had the opportunity to see and examine over the years. Most of the original leather bayonet frogs that I have seen and examined over the years were "vet bring backs", picked up after the hard fighting on an island was over with - and they all showed considerable wear and even rittubg from the wet conditions, sun, etc. that went along with life on an island outpost.
The bayonet with the straight quillon is stamped with the markings for the Toyoda Jidoshoki Seisakusho (Toyoda Automatic Loom Works) under Nagoya supervision.
The second bayonet with the hooked quillon that has the leather frog was made by an “unknown company” under Nogoya supervision.
The third bayonet with the hooked quillon in the scabbard with no leather frog has an unknow manufacturer’s mark. I have done a lot of searching for the mark and I located another example of the same mark, but there was no information on it. It appears that there are a number of manufacturer’s marks on Type 30 bayonets for which there are no records that survived to document the maker.
So . . . while my memory was a bit faulty as far as to exactly what they were (I hadn’t seen them in probably 25 or so years), I am thrilled to get the Type 38 rifles and bayonets as they all have great sentimental value to me, and I am looking forward to getting back to Michigan in the sprin when I can start on this “project” . . . taking them apart and doing a thorough cleaning and oiling and being able to reload some 6.5 X 50 cast rounds to shoot out of them. We were getting ready to come to Arizona for the winter so I didn’t get any photos, but when I get back to Michigan for the summer, I will post photos of the rifles and bayonets as well as their markings.
If anyone casts and reloads for the Type 38, I would greatly appreciate any information as far as what to look out for or tricks. And I will also state that neither of these two rifles are “trainers” so that is not an issue.
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Originally Posted by GregLaROCHE
