The Evolution of Army Uniform Marking Regulations (1886-1945)
Article about: The Evolution of Army Uniform Marking Regulations (1886-1945) IJA Nerds Rejoice Nerdy German militaria collectors get all excited about discussing Waffenamt acceptance markings, Reichs-Betri
The Evolution of Army Uniform Marking Regulations (1886-1945)
The Evolution of Army Uniform Marking Regulations (1886-1945)
IJA Nerds Rejoice
Nerdy German militaria collectors get all excited about discussing Waffenamt acceptance markings, Reichs-Betriebs Nummern, RZM codes and the 3-letter manufacturer codes, but no one yet has done a proper introduction to the standard markings used by the Japanese Army. So here it is; a complete history of how the uniform markings evolved over the years.
The Two Boxes of Goodies, the A & B Stamps
The main markings found on army uniforms consist of two boxes. The one with the many characters printed in columns is called the “A Stamp” (甲標記 read Kou-Hyouki), and the other one, often left blank when unissued is called the “B Stamp” (乙標記 read Otsu-Hyouki).
These two markings were stamped only on certain designated uniform items as a requirement of Army Accounting Regulations that can be traced back to 1886.
1886, The Army Bean-Counters Call the Shots
Back then, article 48 of the “Accounting Bylaw for Unit Clothing Items (各隊被服経理条例)” decreed-----
“The uniform jacket, pants and overcoat must have the following 6 items marked upon them. Markings on other items are to comply with, the separately defined, General Issuance Rules. (1) “Regiment Designation” and (2) “Date, Month and Year of Manufacture” need to be marked in at the time of inspection by the commission member upon completion of manufacture. (3) “The Battalion Designation” is to be entered upon receipt of the uniform by a battalion. (4) “The Company Designation” is entered when handed over to a company. (5) “Month/Year of Issue” is entered when issued to an individual. (6) “Full Name of the Individual” is sewn on (as a patch) upon issuance.”
1892- 1914, The Rise and Fall of the Bean-counting System
As seen above, initially only “jacket, pants and overcoat” were thus marked. Then from 1892, the “visor cap, back pack and blanket” were made subject to this marking regulation. This was further expanded to the summer uniform in 1926, and tropical uniform and rain coat in 1931.
This listing would have expanded greatly in 1938 when a load of new uniform items were introduced like the field cap, helmet cover, new sun helmet, etc. However, I have not been able to locate the ordinance the army must have issued at that time to apply A&B markings to these new uniform items.
For instance, in my Sun Helmet article, the 1923 model did not feature these markings, but a different type, indicating year of manufacture, because the sun helmet was not yet covered by this accounting regulation. Even the Showa 5 type sun helmet was without these markings and only the Type 98 sun helmet of 1938 started to feature them.
While the variety of uniform items to employ these markings increased, the data to be carried in the markings were gradually reduced, and by WW2 only 2 items remained from the original 1886 listing of 6 items above.
The Battalion designation (3) was first to be dropped in 1900, and date of manufacture followed in 1910, now only showing the month and year of production until the month was further omitted in 1914, to show year only.
In 1914, for the first time, the Army sought to ensure uniformity in how the 5 items of data were to be displayed together. Fig 1 & 2 show how the army now intended to rubberstamp the uniforms. Here already the familiar configuration of a 2-box system is seen, but the tiresome part was that neither box could be fully completed until the day of issue arrived, leaving a multitude of entries to be made at company level.
In 1914, it was also realized that it was not really practical to always put a person’s name on the item. The problem was that while Japan worked on strengthening its military, it also was working on improving the education level of its population. Such changes as stretching obligatory education from 4 years to 6 put a strain on supply of teachers. So for teachers, they had a special 6-week army service program. They were given private rooms, better uniforms, likely for the purpose of enrolling teachers into the army’s propaganda scheme by having them talk to kids how great Army life was.
Anyway, putting the name of such a person on an army blanket, which normally had to go through 4 different owners before being withdrawn from service, was an upset to the system. So as of 1914, it became permissible for the company to assign numbers instead of names for such short term use. This was also applicable to the laborers in the service of the transport troops, who only served for 3 months of heavy labor, instead of the normal 3 years of army life.
1920, Companies pushing workload back to the Depots
Then an update to the accounting regulations in 1920 finally set off a shift to the marking system also applied during WW2. The units complained that the issuing depots should handle more of the marking workload, and this led to the practice of having the depots fill everything for the A box, and leave only the B box for completion at company level.
In this process (1) the Regiment Designation and (5) month and year of issue were both no longer filled into box A. After a transitionary period, in which these columns were probably left blank, the Army seemed to have taken the opportunity of the conversion to the metric system in July 1924 to redesign and tidy up the layout of stamp A. This redesign eliminated the issuing entry column and applied it for the depot name. The company number in the middle column was also moved out of stamp A and moved to stamp B, allowing the middle column to show the Year of production instead. The rightmost column now indicated size.
Now the company only needed to put in the company number and personal name in box B when issuing the item. Then the “company designation” (4) was finally dropped from August of 1940, as the army realized the importance of concealing unit identity for security reasons. Thus by WW2 only (6) the “name of the individual”, and (2)” year of manufacture” remained to be entered into the labels from the original 6 items of accounting requirements named in 1886.
The spreadsheet below summarizes the story above, and the rightmost column links you to the graphics with the actual marking layouts applicable at that point in time.
Last edited by Nick Komiya; 10-31-2016 at 08:23 PM.
Thanks to Jareth, I can now show you a nice chronological progression of changes in the A Stamp. The 1913 and 1914 versions below are chiefly different in how they position the size and depot designations (also, the 1913 label still features the month of manufacture, which was omitted in 1914). These two were officially moved to the top and bottom as horizontal bars in 1914. Another difference is that the 1913 label was applied as a patch, but from 1914, rubber-stamping into the lining became standard for saving labor.
Jareth's B label shown earlier, also shows room for only one person's name, but it was a drag, replacing this patch every time an item got reissued to a new owner, so they provided multiple name columns when they switched to rubber-stamping in 1914.
Getting back to the A stamp, the issue month/year column got knocked out probably when they had to redo the drawings in metric in 1924. The year of manufacture was shifted left to the middle column, and the depot mark took the vacated third column and size the first. Like watching an embryo lose its tail and form balls that always needed to stay on the left side, according to army rules.
Also a photo of the blanket markings adopted in 1902.
Last edited by Nick Komiya; 10-31-2016 at 12:24 PM.
Just like the German system of marking uniform items according to condition of the uniform, in order to be appropriate attire for the degree of formalness of the occasion, the IJA had its own way of marking the items.
What the Germans called “Garnituren” in Japanese was called 装用区分 (read Souyo Kubun) literally “wear category”, which sounds pretty straightforward for a change. And just like the German system, it was typically in 3 grades from 1 to 3, “1” being one’s Sunday Best for dress uniform occasions.
The German system used Roman numerals of I, II, III. As wear and tear took its toll, all you did was add a new “I”. The Japanese do not know Roman numerals, so the same principle as the German system was applied in the form of the number of stamps (Grade 1 was a lone stamp and it simply ran up to three stamps). The stamps featured the first character for “wear category” 装 within a 1.5-centimeter diameter circle.
“Grade 1 第一装” was required for dress occasions like parades in the presence of the Emperor, when on guard duty around the imperial palace, annual autumn festival of Yasukuni Shrine, etc.
“Grade 2 第二装” was worn for award ceremonies, oath giving, discharge ceremony, special autumn field maneuvers.
“Grade 3 第三装” was for daily duty.
Each soldier was normally issued 4 service uniform sets including the visor cap, but one set was held back by the company as Grade 1. So a soldier was only supposed to be in personal possession of 1 set in Grade 2, and 2 sets in Grade 3. Overcoats you received 2 sets, 1 each as Grade 2 and 3. Canteens, mess kits and breadbags were also 2 pieces each like the coats. (These I’m quoting from the 1931 uniform/accounting rules, so issue numbers may have been reduced during WW2.)
Finally, the diagrams below show where these grade marks were to be positioned in relation to the A & B stamps.
I personally normally do not collect issued items, so I do not recall ever seeing these grading marks myself, so if anyone has an example, please upload a picture here.
Last edited by Nick Komiya; 11-01-2016 at 11:08 PM.
I found a marking photo from pants produced in the very year the marking regulation came out. One thing I forgot to mention in the main text was that back in the days of this 1886 marking, clothing depots did not exist yet and uniform production was arranged by each regiment. Therefore the marking system started out by having the units also mark in the production date information. Depots came into play only from 1890. Note that the marking does not show size.
Last edited by Nick Komiya; 11-03-2016 at 01:02 PM.
So the final installment for this marking series is the other type of marking found on helmet liners, bread bags, canteen straps, gloves, etc. I need to confess that these markings are still a bit of a mystery to me, as I have not yet been able to find the regulations directly defining these marks and therefore have not fully figured out how they decided which marking system to apply to what item. As I said above, the sun helmets were marked according to this system from 1923, but switched to the A & B Boxes in 1938. I cannot explain why that happened.
Back in 1886 when they selected the coat, jacket and pants to employ the A&B system, they also had " large" and "small" category distinctions between uniform items (大被服、小被服 ), and those in the A&B system are all from the large category. This "large" and "small" actually has little to do with the size of the item, but is similar in meaning to "Primary" and "Secondary", the way I interpret it.
The Primary items required quality checks by higher authority than the secondary items. Also, the latter got issued to companies flexibly as the need arose, but the "Large/Primary" items were issued only at fixed times in the year. So one can indeed say that the "large" category was a "Big deal" to get issued.
I have not found it yet, but there must be a clause somewhere that said "Secondary/Small" items were to get this simplified stamp, which we now want to look at.
This marking is very simple. It shows Year of Manufacture and Depot abbreviation only. The interesting thing is that the year number was always expressed in arabic numerals unlike in the A mark. When the item came in sizes, a separate size marking was added nearby. As seen in the spec drawing and photo below, the box size was slightly expanded to accommodate double digit year numbers later.
Back in the days this marking was established, there were still lots of data in the A stamps, so this simplified style must have worked like the "2 items only Express line" at the supermarket checkout, but by 1924, when the A stamps reached its simplest form, ironically the data content was identical in the two marking systems.
If I were them, I would have abolished the A&B system and switched everything to this system. But life has also taught me that beancounters are a different breed that insist on making life difficult for others to make their own easier.
Last edited by Nick Komiya; 11-03-2016 at 04:05 PM.
And as a tag along, I give you again the boot markings tutorial that you all have already seen, but should not get lost.
Also, one correction is in order. I realized that the 1886 regulation did not require a date of manufacture in the A stamp, but only month and year. So the marking photo from 1886 was correct and it was I who was in error.
The Evolution of Army Uniform Marking Regulations (1886-1945)
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by nick komiya
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