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Epilogue

When I was 12 or so, back in the mid-60s, there was a school excursion to the mountains, in which the main attraction was to cook our own lunch at a riverbed, using mess kits.

I...

Not suited for Tropical Use

Although the IJA’s development of mess kits had origins in the expedition to Taiwan, already as early as 1896, the IJA issued warnings not to carry rice in mess kits in...

Repair Kit for the Company Smith

A boxed specialized canteen and mess kit repair tool kit was issued, which consisted primarily of jigs for hammering dents out with a mallet, cleaning and painting...

Portable Cooking Fuel

Just like the Esbit Fuel Tablets used by the Germans, the IJA issued canned cooking fuel, which came in tin cans of a 67mm diameter and 40mm high. One can of these could cook...

Markings

Mess kits had the manufacturer’s mark and production year stamped into the aluminum on the bottom of the lid, inner tray and at the top edge of the body on the rear (concaved) side.
...

1944, The Last Ditch Cast Aluminum Mess Kits

As the war continued to deplete production resources, Army Ordinance 99 issued on 10th December 1943 allowed “aluminum to be substituted by other...

1939, Back to a 2-meal Austerity Mess Kit

As you all well know by now, the outbreak of the China Incident in July 1937 and the way it dragged on, switched the whole country of Japan to resource...

1933, Testing of Mess Kit Warming Covers

With the outbreak of the Manchurian Incident in 1932, dealing with severe freezing became a concern once again. So on 7th February 1933, the army sent out...

1932, Minor revision (Type 92) of the M1930 Mess Kit

Army Ordinance 28, issued on 23rd December 1932 launched, along with body armor and protective suits against gas, a revised design for the 1930...

The Model 1930 (Type Sho-5) Mess Kit

On 21st April, 1930 the whole look of the IJA was revamped from head to toe and from tropical gear to extreme cold gear. Moreover the variety of attire...

1926, Patent and Citation for a 3-meal Mess Tin

Continuing with innovations and patents, on the 1st of January 1926, the Minister of the Army issued a special citation, reward and a silver cup to...

1923, Corrosion-proofing of Aluminum invented

As briefly mentioned earlier in connection with the corrosion panic of 1901, in 1923, a Japanese company called 理研 Riken developed the world's first...

1918, Prototype tripod-style hearth for mess tin cooking

Now that the cooking ban was lifted, there started to appear innovations to actively make cooking easier.

One such invention was for...

1913, Finally enough mess kits to go around


For as long as 15 years, since the introduction of the aluminum mess kit and canteen, the army continued to suffer from a shortage of supply to the...

1904, The Russo-Japanese War

Despite suffering from the shortage of the new aluminum canteens and mess tins, Japan already plunged into another war in February 1904, with Russia. As a result,...

1903, The Last Shogun and His “Custom” Mess Kit

In May of 1903, Yoshinobu Tokugawa (The last Shogun, who abdicated and returned rule to the Emperor, thus ending the reign of the Samurai) made a...

1901, The Melting Aluminum Scandal


Soldiers tended to greet such innovations with skepticism, and we can hardly blame them, as even today, more than 120 years later, it is not long ago that the...

1901, Mess Kit Wire Handle Design Change

The wire handle used to hang loose below the mess kit bottom, so this slack was reduced to hug the body tighter. Instead a “V” bend was added to allow room...

The IJA were ahead of the German army in the use of aluminum kits !

As I wrote in the canteen thread, I had always thought that Japan’s introduction of aluminum canteens and mess kits were an idea...

The Development of the Model 1898 Mess Kit

The army responded to this on 13th November 1895 by requesting units to suspend further orders of mess kits and canteens, because new models in aluminum...

Drawback Exposed in the Sino-Japanese War

In 1895, the 6th Infantry Regiment issued an equipment improvement proposal based on their experience in the Sino-Japanese War.

They requested a...

The Model 1883 1-meal Mess Kit

A memo dated 27th March 1883 introduced new nomenclature for army equipment in which, finally, the modern word 飯盒 (hangou) appears to describe a mess kit. A footnote...

The Model 1874 2-meal Mess Kit

The IJA called the tin metal sheet used for the manufacture of these mess kits “Buriki”, which is said to come from the Dutch word, “Blikje”, meaning metal can.
...

1874, the first overseas excursion to Taiwan for the IJA

The Taiwan campaign of 1874 seemed to have been a trigger that made the IJA aware that soldiers needed to be kitted out to be...

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