Show your favourite Japanese items - Here's to you Nick

[Danger]

Hi Guys,

Today I was reading up on Nick Komiya's sticky threads and noticed his in memoriam title.
It shocked me and I am honestly devastated.

Nick has taught me so much over the years and I am truly indebted to him.
He was my teacher and guide. I looked up to him.

I can't thank him enough and he will sincerely be missed.
Today we all benefit from his dedication and time he put into creating an in-depth extensive library of threads and answering tricky obscure questions and translations.

To honour Nick and his legacy I would like to show something that excited Nick and is my favorite Japanese item in my collection.

Please join me and post your favorite Japanese items.

Nick - I was hoping to see that patch on the forum some day, so it's great to see, thanks. You have a navy button and a Breast Rank Patch for a Sounin-kan, a Senior (Lt to Colonel equivalent) rank of a civilian in army employ (Gunzoku). It is missing the gold or yellow piping around it. (gold piping wasn't missing. tab is mint. better photos were supplied once it arrived) He would have been entitled to wear an army officer's sword and tassel, though being civilian. I had thought those were collar patches, but in rereading the regs, I now realize they were worn above the right chest pocket.
In terms of rarity, the tabs with blue and yellow stars together represented only 3% of the entire Gunzoku population, so blue is quite rare.

Cheers,

Danger

[Bruce Pennington]

My favorite is my dad's Mantetsu, but I'll post my only gendaito, in honor of Nick's work finding the regulation chart explaining the meaning of the star on RJT blades. A 1945 Kunitoshi, RJT gendaito. Interesting in that its rinji-seishiki fittings are a standard, tan saya with double release buttons. The fittings with double buttons are normally upgraded quality. It's also got a Nick connection in that his research revealed the history of the rinji-seishiki, and the very name is his chosen term for the styl.

Not great photos, but all I have:

[ghp95134]

I and friend Nyle Monday had worked with Nick to get his Japanese War Medals research published as a monograph by the Journal of Medals and Orders Society of America (JOMSA). JOMSA said they were very interested, so we sent in the draft manuscript along with photos, captions, etc.; then waited.

and waited.

and waited.

We never received a follow up from JOMSA. Perhaps they though their updated Peterson's was sufficient.

Oh well .... Nick was very keen that people should have FREE and open access to his research and was more concerned that his research pages here should remain available to everyone.

But I'm sure he would really have liked to see his monograph published.

Requiescat In Pace, Nick.
-- Guy

[tomp]

The last time I corresponded with Nick was late summer, last year. I needed help with confirming specialty kanji in one of my booklets, and as always, Nick came through. This was the booklet pic. I sent to him: With the family name of Ookazu (many possible readings for this), this combat engineer was a member of the 4th Railway Regiment under the Kwantung Army, and had a specialty operating road/rail armored cars, like that of the Type 93.

Tom

[byBen]

This is my favorite item, the dog tag to a Russo Japanese War 2nd Lt. Tamiharu Moriya that was a ex-samurai of the date clan and settler to Hokkaido as part of a resettlement Programm by the Japanese government in 1876, I loved the way Nick researched it for me he really went above and beyond on it… it’s likely not my most valuable / desirable tag, but it is my favorite for sure, here a link to the original post and nicks replies: 3 Japanese Officer Dog Tags

My last contact with Nick was in august last year… I did only get to know him very late compared to the others on the forum here, so I didn’t know about his health issues, he didn’t brought it up to me… so it was a shock when I read the post on here… truly a huge loss for this forum and Japanese militaria collectors overall.
But his memory will live on with a lot of posts where he helped others, so he will continue to teach people about Japanese militaria, which I think is a beautiful thought.

- Ben

[Rescue190]

Cheers Nick.
John

[jeeplover]

Is that a baby nambu? I just watched a video on YouTube that talked about these very rare.

[Rescue190]

Is that a baby nambu? I just watched a video on YouTube that talked about these very rare.

Yes. I am lucky to own one.
John

[SHEMP H]

This is one of my favorites,IJA M98 second pattern (Type 13) tropical tunic. Note the pleated upper pockets, these are hard to find .

[Comekaze]

My last chat with Nick - RIEP, was about an entry in this Gun-techou dated 1938 of a soldier who died of a blasting wound to the head at a fort in Hebei Province, China. Nick , in his humor wrote,

Having part of his head blown away, the most gruesome entry I've read so far.

I took it as a compliment as I knew he had sifted through a lot of documentation in his research journey. Fare Thee Well. You will be surely missed.