Taisho Hoko Bukoro

[bestmsdt]

Got this on Sunday, the first I've seen. Was a bit surprised to see that the date on the back appears to be Tasiho 7, 1918? It seems in good condition for that age, if it's legitimate.
Cheers,
Tony

[Nick Komiya]

You found yourself the very first issue of the Service bag, which is totally authentic.

After WW1, because of the worldwide demilitarization boom, Japan also shut down several army divisions. But preceding this, to keep the discharged vets on their toes, ready to be called back at any time, on 8th November 1918, they decided to issue these bags to those being discharged as of that year.

Yours was prepared by the 13th Division, as each division was responsible to make their own bags and lend them to their personnel along with instructions on what to keep inside once they became reservists. Upon discharge, the bag was finally issued to them to keep. The division was disbanded in 1925 along with 3 other divisions. Chiang Kai-shek, who later fought against Japan used to be a member of field artillery of that division under his Japanese name of Takada.

Bags to keep the military passbook in had already been issued from 9th June 1874, as the first booklets had soft covers which got badly tattered in no time, but they got issued as "service bags" for the first time from 1918. As mentioned, from 1918 the bags were strictly for reservists, so they should have actually been called "reservist bags" or "readiness bags". They were destined to be kept in mint condition during active service, though "service bag" makes it sound like a piece of active service field gear.

The bags remained basically unchanged till WW2. Shown below is the original 1918 spec and also 1939 specs. In between the Army went metric after the Great Kanto Earthquake, so only the measurement indications changed.

Your bag is named to Atsushi Yoshizawa

[bestmsdt]

Thanks Nick, extremely interesting information, really puts some history and context to the item. A nice find as it is the first one I've seen!
Cheers,
Tony