Nambu World: Type 14 Holsters-JMCH Type I

The Type I holster is believed to be the earliest type. It is leather, has a solid leather closure strap, oval strap rings on the back, and no spare striker pocket.

Here you can see the oval strap rings on the back, much like a Papa Nambu holster.

With the holster open you can see that theType I has no pocket for a spare striker (if it had one it would be to the right of the ammo pouch). You can also see that this holster has a paper name tag on the inside of the clamshell. Both these points are shown in more detail below. The holster accommodated the pistol, a spare magazine and cleaning rod in the body and spare ammo in the pouch.

Here is a close-up of the ammo pouch, which was designed to hold two, 15-round boxes of 8mm Nambu ammunition. Note that there is no pocket for a spare striker (firing pin) to the right of the pocket.

There are two paper tags. They both read from right to left. The lower one has what appears to be a surname followed by the rank gocho (corporal). The second character from the right is a bit smudged but the surname may be Kuno. The upper tag appears to be the surname Kide, although in this case it is the first character (on the right) that is smudged/worn too much to be sure.

If you rotate the holster you can see that there is also an arsenal marking that is visible at the left end of the lower tag. The upper two characters are sho (short for Showa) on the right, and the character go, or five, on the left. Showa 5 was the year 1930. Below that one can see part of the Tokyo Arsenal marking (the two round bits on the upper right corner of the tag in the photo. Usually name tags are put right where the arsenal markings are, so I was a bit lucky to find a holster where both are visible.

The trim on the front corner of the clamshell (the upper right corner if the holster is closed and viewed from the front) is always a wear spot on these holsters and this one is no exception. You can see that the edging is worn away here, although the rest of the edging is pretty good.

The bottom of the front edge of the holster has a bump on it to accommodate the front sight. On this holster the sight has worn right through. I also have a Papa holster where that happened.

Part of the stitching on the back of the interior block that separates the holster and spare mag is worn off, but there is still enough left here and on the front to hold it soldly in place.

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Last updated: June 15, 2006. All contents are copyright Teri unless otherwise specified and may not be used elsewhere in any form without prior permission.