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Nice piece!

I noticed that these are very low resolution, so I will try and make them a bit bigger for the next ones. Ready for an early Order of Paulownia Flowers?

outside of case--what a treasure!

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It would suit me better to upgrade my membership so I can post nice pics. Any advice on that? That shouldn't be very hard. I looked at my profile, etc., but couldn't see a quick way to do it.

Used Pikasa (I have a Mac so the other software doesn't work) and was able to resize 1 photo. Then the function disappeared. Sheesh, it cant be this troublesome--it must be me. Anyway, here's 1 picture. More coming, if possible.

How to upgrade? I couldn't find a way to do that...

OK, my picture files are too big. Any advice?

Mr Okuma was the 17th prime minister of Japan, and he has a wealth of accomplishments that you can read about here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ōkuma_Shigenobu He died in 1922. Let's look at a few of his medals. First, the 1st Class Order of the Rising Sun, awarded in February 1877.

A guess: The medals were minted at the Japan Mint and assembled elsewhere. This 'elsewhere' may have made the simple suspension clasps and marked them... But that is only a guess. In addition, it is also possible (probable?) that the same mark has different meanings. It is not as if these were examined closely by everyone as we are doing now. More likely, no one cared where they were made. And may I venture another guess? Maybe very few care even today! Only a few of us.

Since the Japanese Red Cross ordered member medals direct from the Japan Mint, I think they ordered rosettes and cases in the same manner--but from other manufacturers. So I think the Japan Mint was only concerned with medals. The Mint didn't make ribbons, cases, or rosettes for any of the other medals, either.

1st rosette case. Inscribed on top.

Case for 2nd pictured rosette. This inscription was on the bottom of the case.

2nd hallmarked rosette

Found two boxed Red Cross rosettes with the dai (大) hallmark. Inscribed on both cases was the shop that made it: Ohashi (大橋). One has additional information that I cannot make out (faded), with the exception of 'Tokyo.' That, though, is a big hint. The two kanji next to Tokyo are probably an area name, and the three below Tokyo also seem to indicate an area ('below -- '). If anyone has similar inscribed cases that are not faded, that would let us identify one hallmark. Little by little...

sorry...

Yes, thanks Nick. See another copy here: http://imperialjapanmedalsandbadges.com/meiji8.html Cheers, Rich

Check the 3rd issue of my newsletter, which has detailed info on the awards given from 1951 to 1960. Did you forget that?

Personal names are notoriously difficult even for native speakers. Even common ones sometimes have more than one way to be read. This kanji 詮 when used in a name can be read thusly: Akira Satoshi Aki Sato Toshi Tomo Nori However, the latter 5 appear to be readings when used with another kanji. So either of the first two is most likely (never definitive without more info, though). The family name appears to be, as written above, Urushiya or Urushidani.

The case is not original to the medal, so why would I keep them together? If you read the original listing from Japan (as I know you have seen it), you will see the seller explicitly stated he added the case and that it was NOT original.

I just purchased this very medal and it is 100% bronze. The lighting of the camera caused it to look silver.

Just Just found a reference to the Yokosuka badge in one of my Japanese references. Seems as though it came in 3 classes. The 1st class was silver with the kanji in gold. The 2nd was bronze with the kanji in gold. The 3rd was iron with gold kanji.