Story of the Golden Kite

[Nick Komiya]

Here are full color scans of Edict 11, signed by the Emperor that officially launched the Order of the Golden Kite in 1890.

[Nick Komiya]

When the Glitter of Gold Ceased to be Patriotic

I wrote in post #34 that cases for orders got order name and class inscriptions on the lid changed to silver from gold, due to material shortages arising from the China Incident that broke out in July 1937.

Actually, these inscriptions in silver are often the only practical dating clues for those “narrow-minded” collectors only interested in orders of WW2 vintage and nothing earlier or later. Therefore it should be of interest to such collectors to know more exactly when they started with the silver inscriptions on cases.

Additionally, I recently became aware that some novice collectors had been given the misguided idea that silver inscriptions standing for 1940s production was a myth and not historical fact. When writing the text, I took it for granted that everyone knew it was so. So I did not bother to show back-up documents, but to kill the silly stories once and for all, let me tie things down securely for those poor doubters as well.

This “Gold/Silver” switch was triggered by an ordinance issued by the Ministry of Finance aimed to conserve rare metals by curbing their commercial consumption.

Restrictions were first imposed in outlying territories such as Taiwan, Kwantung, Korea, but soon got applied to the homeland as well. The first such restriction introduced to the homeland was published on 28th December 1937 as Finance Ministry Ordinance Number 60 (大蔵省令第六十号). This regulation spelled out already in article 1, “All items using gold of a purity above 376/1000 may no longer be produced with the exception of (1) Orders, Decorations and similar specified by law, (2) Unavoidable use in industrial and medical applications or items separately approved as exceptions by the Finance Minister.”

This ordinance, in article 2, further prohibited any use of gold lettering for book covers, signage, etc. as well

Although lacquered cases for orders with inscriptions in gold were already a violation of this article 2 of late 1937, article 1 did exempt legally defined orders, so it was possible for them to claim extension of that principle for the cases that came with those orders. However, other usage of gold foil lettering such as seen on the cover of a police officer’s leather passbook or on civilian driver’s license covers took the hint from ordinance 60 and switched to brass and other alternatives from around mid February 1938.

Then, as things got tougher, the “Gold Usage” ordinance got repeatedly revised and the exception status clause for orders and decorations got completely dropped from ordinance 51 of 20th August 1938. The only exception still remaining was for gold in medical applications, and any other usage became subject to Ministerial approval.

It was this Ordinance 51 that finally affected the Decorations Bureau and forced them to apply for special Finance Ministry permission to continue using gold-plating for orders, but drop the inscriptions in gold from the cases.

One year after that, Germany invaded Poland to kick off WW2, choking off Japan’s foreign currency supply. So the government launched a desperate drive to hoard as much of the gold that was already in the country by forcefully buying up any private sector gold with a purity rating of 250/1000 and above. Thus gold supply in the civilian market perished. But it did not end there, as soon, all domestic mining of gold will stop, as war with the USA raised demand for steel more than for gold, and all gold mines were stripped of mining equipment that now went into steel production by 1943.

So from the history above, production of cases with silver lettering can be tied down to the timeframe between late summer of 1938 to 1945, when production of orders completely ceased. Even after 1945, though no new orders were produced, a certain amount of wartime stock was presented as posthumous honors. Order presentations to live Japanese citizens were totally suspended until revived again in April 1964.

[Nick Komiya]

Golden Kites in the Army Dress Code

During my recent document search through the archives, I happened to find two dress code documents that represent a missing link between posts 28 and 29 of this Golden Kite story. The first document was issued on 17th May 1941, 1 month prior to the new regulation, permitting various classes of the Golden Kite to be worn at the same time, not only the highest Golden Kite class.

The second document issued on 3rd June 1942 was a revision of the above, to incorporate, into the dress code, multiple Golden Kite classes being worn together at the same time, which got compounded a month later by new rules that further allowed the same class of Golden Kite to be awarded more than once.

The May 1941 document was issued as memo 3603 and defined the dress code occasions that called for the wear of orders, medals and ribbon bars.

1. For Full Dress and Dress Opportunities: All medals and orders are to be worn.

2. For normal Dress Occasions:
A: Those with orders in 1st Class or higher are to wear the breast star of the highest order (no medals).
B: Those with orders in 2nd Class or lower are to wear all medals and orders.

3. For full-gear marches and troop reviews: All medals and when necessary, the highest order (though 1st class holders are to wear the breast star, not the 1st class sash order).

4. When full-gear field attire is to substitute for full-dress, normal-dress, medals and orders are to follow the intended dress code, but 1st class holders are to wear only the breast star.

5. For EM and NCOs, all foregoing scenarios are to be bedecked with all medals and orders.

6. In the combat zone or in maneuvers, ribbon bars are to be worn. In the revision of this regulation announced on 3rd June 1942 (Memo 3689), the possibility to wear the highest class order was added as an exceptional case.

7. In full-gear or in normal dress occasions that call for wear of the highest order, winners of the Golden Kite are also to wear them in addition. This handling of the Golden Kite was expanded and made more specific in the revision of this regulation on 3rd June 1942 by adding the following.
• When the Golden Kite is not the highest class order awarded, the Kite is to accompany the highest order.
• When the Golden Kite is the highest order, only the Kite is to be worn.
• When more than one Golden Kites has been won, multiple Kites may be worn in the forgoing scenarios, however, the neck order for the 2nd class Kite is not to be worn (only the breast star).

8. Base and unit commanders may designate special codes for wearing of medals and orders, when judged necessary.

By now having these dress codes on wear of medals and orders, we can clearly interpret the following two photos. The field marshal to the right is only wearing the breast star for the 1st Class Kite without any other orders or medals. That is the “normal dress” requirement for 1st class holders as described in point 2 above. To the left, Lt. General Ushijima, wears all his medals and other orders along with his 2nd Class Golden Kite. He won this second class along with a first class Sacred Treasure on 29th April 1940. Thus he was already a first class holder. So under the dress code above, this attire can only be him in dress uniform code.

[Nick Komiya]

A Meiji era version of the Golden Kite 1st Class sash order