Arisaka ' Mums '

jennis

jennis

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How rare are unmolested Arisakas, everyone I see on the EE is 'defaced' how did the ones intact make it to N. America , vet bring backs ?
 
I believe mum fully intact means an unauthorized ship home rifle, prior to japans surrender. Maybe even authorized, but Ive read that to preserve the emperors honor, looted weapons post surrender was scrubbed.
 
Yup as per my understanding they would be captures since the US allowed them to remove the emporers mark from all weapons as turning them over mark intact was a great dishonour
 
Some made it back because the us asked soliders to please scub it off it they were already approved some did some didn't. Not allot of them made it back so price wise depends if you can find one.
 
Makes you wonder what the Soviets did with the hundreds of thousands they captured. There sure as H weren't any mums ground off on their watch.
 
RRCo. said:
Makes you wonder what the Soviets did with the hundreds of thousands they captured. There sure as H weren't any mums ground off on their watch.
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It wasn't just the Soviets that captured thousands of them. The Chinese, and just about every country they invaded captured them by the truck loads.

I have a minty Type 99 that has the MUM intact and it is a late war rifle. Lots of cut corners. Anyway, I'm almost sure this is one of the rifles that was never issued but taken out of the warehouses full of new in crate rifles they found after occupying Japan. There are lots of stories written about these rifles and that Tokyo Bay was afloat with the empty crates from the rifles that went to the ships in the harbor as war souveneirs.

I also have a Thai rebarrel 99 that was converted to 30-06 with a shorter barrel. It is a lovely rifle, with the MUM still intact.

Then, there is the Type I Carcano made up for Japan. There are no markings on the rifle, other than the serial numbers. Interesting rifle.

Now, I have to find a decent Type 38 with a minty bore and MUM. That should just about cover a decent representative collection.
 
You can thank MacArthur for that when he served as "shogun" Didn't want the japs to "lose face" so the mums were ground. If intact, the rifle was taken from a jap who no longer needed it;)
 
I have two 38's both with the Mums intact , the non carbine 38 has a series of small circles encircling the Mum which I'm lead to believe it was decommissioned from the service of the Emperor, and the carbine 38 is of the Thai / 06 variety.
 
If you can find one that has concentric circles instead of a Mum, it supposedly was issued to the Kempeitai (the Japanese Secret Police), but they are pretty rare....
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I believe the concentric circles and the 1/16" or so circular stamps around the edge are just more respectful ways to defacing the chrysanthemum. It was the imperial symbol after all and just hacking at it with a grinder would have been shocking to most Japanese, although come to think of it, there were quite a lot of Japanese who were thoroughly PO'd at the emperor and all he stood for by 1945.
 
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RRCo. said:
I believe the concentric circles and the 1/16" or so circular stamps around the edge are just more respectful ways to defacing the chrysanthemum.
Click to expand...
I don't know, if you ask Riceone on Gunboards, he has a lot of info on the "concentric circle" stamping, and it's possible origin.
 
A very good matching 38 with mum just sold for a smidge over $1,000 on gunbroker this week. They have one of those Manchuoko factory ones up...bids are at $900 and still 3 days to go!
The mums on these are easier found in the USA but the prices are high. Expect to pay 25%+ more for an unmolested mum.
 
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