The above post was a request for source documentation for post 3 about the army's official decree that the army itself had to be responsible for removal of the mums before selling off decommissioned rifles to the private sector. The dealers were supposed to do this, but guns with mums hit the Hiroshima market in 1914 causing the police to complain to the army.
Thanks Nick!
In post 8, I touched upon the army dress cap insignia changing from the initial sunflower-like design to the 32 beam sunburst design. Here is the order that introduced that cap insignia change for officers. However, this sunburst design was already used on saber grip backstraps as early as 1875.
Nick,by nick komiya
I have been trying to find a reference that depicts this sunburst pattern, but have not found one. There are two backstraps, now being discussed with it, so it seems to be a legit pattern, but I've no luck identifying it. Do you have any info on this? Your example has 3 ray-lengths, whereas this one only uses 2 lengths.
The rising sun you show in the photo is basically in the army configuration, while the illustration you put beside it is the police type with a much smaller orb. Police rising suns consistently had a tiny orb in the center as shown below.
Regarding the staggering of the ray lengths, the army's version did change size and designs several times after 1880, so a 2 length version might be one such later version. However, 3 ray lengths had been the standard norm since the institution of the Order of the Rising Sun, so a 2 length variant would be highly irregular
Thank you, Nick! I'll pass it on. It's on a highly customized tanto discussed here: A short kyu gunto with some questions,
so the sunburst chosen must have been a custom touch as well.
Not a custom design item, but probably based on army insignia evolution endorsed by an imperial edict. It should be possible to pinpoint things through archival research, but it's a lot of work, so I do not want to get into that now.
Unlike EM items that were very tightly bound by specifications and quality control standards, officer items made by private companies outside the arsenal were indeed allowed a fair amount of latitude for customization at the "bells and whistles" level, but the rising sun, as a national emblem was something they could not have tinkered with without the emperor's approval.
You seem to often get confused that I am implying that the restrictions imposed on EM items (these items including uniforms were only loaned to the soldier for the duration of service and had to be returned in issued condition at discharge) were applied to officer items as well. Officer items were personal property, not national like EM arsenal made items, so customization and violations of regulations did occur and became military police issues. See here for blatant examples.
This is the army's first type sunburst emblem I described as a sunflower in post 23.
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