The Evolution of the Japanese Imperial Army Sun Helmet (1915-1945)

[Geoff Ward]

Well done Nick! Very enjoyable and informative! Nice helmets Jareth! Thank you both for all the hard work!

Regards,Geoff

[Nick Komiya]

I just realized with a sigh that a preconceived notion from my German militaria background had crept into the story. Because of the late style German sun helmets of WW2 in pressed felt, I automatically assumed the Japanese used felt in the same way, but actually documents do not say anything about being pressed, so I edited that word out. It could have also been in tape form like Sanada, which also jibes with the late intro of the shaping mold, which did not seem to exist during the production of the Showa 5 model.

[Nick Komiya]

Here's a little addenda to the sun helmet story.

The name Tsuneyoshi Murata is a familiar name to fans of Japanese military rifles. Yes, he's the developer of the Murata Rifle. But his inventiveness actually did not stop there, and he is also known as developer of the Army saber.

However, that was still not enough for him, because in 1915 he submitted his little known prototype of an Army visor cap for summer. He was already out of the Army by then, and was serving as parliamentary politician in the House of Peers.

This visor cap was actually pitched against the "Helmet Type Sun Hat", which the Army was starting to toy with at that time. However in end of June 1915, shortly before issuing the captured German Sun Helmets to Taiwan, the Army decided to put its hopes in sun helmets instead.

The Murata Hat had a wider and stiffer headband, had cork spacers at the forehead and at the top of the headband in the rear. It also featured a stretched peak shape like what the Germans call plate-shaped ( vs saddle form). The Army admitted that it was indeed cooler in summer than the current visor cap, but on the other hand, did not think it was suitable for winters. Having to issue two different visor caps for summer and winter did not seem a practical solution, and if it was just for dealing with the summer heat, the sun helmet seemed more promising to the Army brass.

Thus Murata's last itch as inventor failed to bear fruit, and he died in 1921 without seeing the Army introduce its first official sun helmet.

[ghp95134]

Thanks Nick. I tried to find a drawing or image of the hat but came up empty. However, during my searches I found mentions of his name as a swordsmith; apparently Murata was also an active swordsmith??? He is listed in Marcus Sesko's Index of Japanese Swordsmiths N-Z P. 395, bottom.
However, the only two examples I saw on Ohmura's sites, the blades are "Murata-To Kanemasa". So did Murata actually forge swords (even under "supervision"), or did he "design" the sword that Kanemasa forged?

The added bonus for me is finding out that Murata was a marksmanship instructor at Rikugun Toyama Gakkō.
1877年、陸軍少佐。陸軍戸山学校教官として銃の改良や射的技術の向上にあたり...。


--Guy

[Nick Komiya]

I dug the Murata cap files out from very deep within the archives, so no one else knows about it. The only hints to its appearance are in the Army Medical School's evaluation report on the hat, which has a few doodlings of suggestions for improvements (see below).

Though his hat was a bust, the Army still hadn't totally given up on visor caps, as they were trying out various configurations even in the big 1921 Taiwan test. There they tried stuffing grass inside and drenching the cap in water, etc. They did find out that if they tripled the size of the vent grommets on the cap and increased the number of grommets to 8 (2 each per compass direction) this would reduce the inner temperature by an impressive 3 degrees, but by then there would have been little of the visor cap left and you would have been wearing grommets.

Murata must have been a very talented man, as he himself forged the saber prototypes he submitted and demonstrated how it sliced through the skull of a pig. He also won many marksmanship awards in Europe, so he was proficient with both swords and guns.

[TrondK]

Very informative. thank you

[wizardman]

I was just able to get a type 98 version 1.. with the help of Nicks information i was able to correctly pinpoint the model..thank you Nick Komiya

[Geoff Ward]

Nice! Hope you get a chance to post some photos! I would love to see some pics Regards,Geoff

[Nick Komiya]

See here for bogus bamboo sun helmets Bamboo Army Sun Helmets, really?

[arisakadogs]

Great thread - super research on this! I just agreed to buy a minty Type 98 variation 3 helmet from a fellow collector. I've always hoped to score one of these but they have either been too expensive or had problems. Here are some photos of the example I have coming.