Nambu World: Type 14 Holster-JMCH II

Type 14 leather holsters didn’t have the firing pin slot at first. It wasn’t until they realized the firing pins were prone to breakage and started issuing a spare one with each pistol that this feature was added in the early 1930s. This one is in excellent condition, though a bit dark. The markings on the inside of the clamshell are also not very clear, though the strap rings have interesting marks (see below). It looks very similar to the variation that replaced it except for not having the firing pin pouch.

Here is the back. The strap rings are made of brass and are fairly square. Earlier ones on the Types I and I-A were oval.

Here it is with the clamshell open.

This is a close-up of the ammo pouch, which held two, 15-round boxes of ammunition. Note that there is no slot for a spare firing pin to the right of the pouch as in later variations.

Here is a side-by-side comparison of two early Type 14 leather holsters. The one on the left is the one shown here, with no firing pin slot. The one on the right is the version with the slot to the right of the ammo pouch.

Here is a close-up of the markings. They are very faint, but in the middle you can make out the “stack-of-four-cannonballs-viewed-from-the-top” marking (it looks a little like a cloverleaf). This was used by Tokyo Arsenal until 1935 and Kokura Arsenal thereafter. The next clearest marking is the Japanese character for ten just below and to the left of that. It looks like a “plus sign”. There is some other marking to the right of the arsenal marking that could be a katakana “ho” on its side (top towards the left). This would make sense since there are similar inspection markings on the strap rings, but I just can’t make it out quite clearly enough to be 100% certain. There also something in pencil below this (closer to the hinge; not shown in this photo), but it is too faint to make out. The markings are a bit of a mystery to me. The ten would normally refer to Showa 10, or 1935, but I think that is too late for a holster without a firing pin/striker slot. I will keep looking at this in different light and maybe with enlargement to see what I can decipher.

Much clearer are the markings on the strap rings. Both rings have what appears to be a small inspector’s marking. On the right ring (when viewed from the back), the marking is on the outward-facing side. Here the top of the marking is to the right of the photo.

On the left ring it is on the inward-facing side (the side that would be towards the wearer’s body). Again, the top of the marking is to the right of the photo.

Although the markings are small, they are clearly a katakana “ho”. This “ho” mark looks like the print-out below. Katakana are one of the two sets of phonetic symbols the Japanese use in addition to kanji (Chinese characters) to write their language. Katakana were often used for small markings, presumably because they are simpler to stamp than the more cursive hiragana.

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Last updated: June 27, 2006. All contents are copyright Teri unless otherwise specified and may not be used elsewhere in any form without prior permission.