The 1900 War Medal Ribbon Colours

[Comekaze]

I am fascinated by medal ribbons.These two medals are part of my collection.Though I have searched the forum and other resources, I cannot find an article that answers why this ribbon and the other two medals preceding it have these colours, green and white.Green for the army?White for peace?If anyone can lead me to an article that answers that,if there is one,or those in the know,your comments would be greatly appreciated.
This also goes to the blue and white of e.g the 1914-15 and 1914-20 medals.

[TabsTabs1964]

No answer to your question, but nice medal and ribbon. Be patient one of the experts will surely be able to help you soon.

[RussM]

Have a look at this article for the answers.

The Evolution of Imperial Japan’s War Medals (1875-1945)

Regards

Russ

[Nick Komiya]

The 1874 War Medal design was intended to be issued for all future conflicts, not only Taiwan. The only feature that was to differ by campaign was the bar across the ribbon naming the conflict. Thus the Taiwan medal was already issued with extra holes above the "Taiwan" bar to theoretically accommodate the Sino-Japanese War bar, which would have come next.

Just repeating the same design of war medal for all campaigns also involved reusing the same ribbon, exhibiting white and green stripes. This feature was to clearly identify a war medal within the expanding multi-colored fruit salad of commemorative medal ribbons.

That was what the army had in mind, but Ogyu, the Chief of the Decorations Bureau, a nerdy type who had studied foreign medal and order programs since his Samurai days simply could not help trying something new every time Japan had a reason to celebrate. Thus every new medal design became a tug of war between the "Keep it sweet and simple" army and Ogyu, who wanted to establish a lineup of decorations that would impress the nations of Europe.

More on that in the following two posts (posts #15 and #58)

The Evolution of Imperial Japan’s War Medals (1875-1945)

The Evolution of Imperial Japan’s War Medals (1875-1945)

[Comekaze]

Thank you for the answers.I had actually read through most of those links before I asked the question. Apart from being easily recognised as war medals why green and white? Is it that those two colors were either copied from a Euro medal or were they chosen at random without having a meaning attached to the colors?

[Comekaze]

As I read further I can see that if it was indeed copied form a Euro medal it was to allow the non-Japanese to also understand the meaning of the medal?

[Comekaze]

Quote from Nicks post ;exhibiting white and green stripes. This feature was to clearly identify a war medal within the expanding multi-colored fruit salad of commemorative medal ribbons. Unquote
So,because the other colours had been used up in other medals ,green and white was a unique combination that was not on any other medals.That makes sense.