Nambu
World: Type 14 Holster-JMCH II
Type
14 leather holsters didnft have the firing pin slot at first. It wasnft 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 gstack-of-four-cannonballs-viewed-from-the-toph 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 gplus signh. There
is some other marking to the right of the arsenal marking that could be a katakana ghoh on its side (top towards
the left). This would make sense since there are similar inspection markings on
the strap rings, but I just canft 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 inspectorfs 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 wearerfs body). Again, the top of the
marking is to the right of the photo.
Although
the markings are small, they are clearly a katakana
ghoh. This ghoh 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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Accessories page: t14accessories.htm
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Last updated: June 27, 2006. All contents are
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